Emirates operates six daily return flights between Dubai and Heathrow.
London, United Kingdom:
Emirates on Thursday rejected a London Heathrow order ordering airlines to reduce passenger numbers to ease the chaos of summer travel due to staff shortages.
The airport decided to cap the total number of departing passengers to 100,000 per day for two months until 11 September – and requested that the carrier stop selling summer tickets.
“This is completely unfair and unacceptable and we reject these demands,” Emirates said in a statement.
The cap is compared to the planned peak-season daily average of 104,000 passengers.
Heathrow’s move comes as it seeks to ease overcrowding with demand rising rapidly after the lifting of pandemic restrictions.
Emirates described the airport’s short-notice order as “highly regrettable” for complying with a capacity cut, a figure that appears to have fallen out of thin air.
“Their communications not only directed the specific flights on which we should exclude paying passengers, but also threatened legal action for non-compliance,” the airline said.
Emirates operates six daily return flights between Dubai and Heathrow, which on Thursday said it would be “disappointing if …
Meanwhile British airline Virgin Atlantic said it supports Heathrow’s policy “as long as the proposed action does not adversely affect domestic carriers at the airport”.
British Airways, which has already canceled thousands of summer flights due to staff shortages, will remove another six daily short-haul trips in response to the cap.
Airports and airlines are struggling to recruit workers who laid off thousands of positions at the start of the pandemic.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)