Emirates lashes London Heathrow Airport for traveller caps and cuts

Emirates has lashed and rejected Heathrow Airport’s demand to cap the number of departing passengers. Here’s how it affects Aussie flyers.

Emirates flies in and out of London with the Airbus A380.

Emirates has lashed and rejected London Heathrow Airport’s demand to cap the number of departing passengers as delays linked to the Covid-19 pandemic continue.

The global airline issued an aggressive public statement, saying it was “entirely unreasonable and unacceptable”.

Emirates said it had reinstated six daily A380 flights since October last year, saying it was “highly regrettable” that the airport last evening gave them 36 hours to comply with capacity cuts.

They argue the caps London Heathrow Airport’s (LHR) want to operate under appear “to be plucked from thin air”.

“From our past 10 months of regularly high seat loads, our operational requirements cannot be a surprise to the airport,” it said in a statement.

Now, with blatant disregard for consumers, they wish to force Emirates to deny seats to tens of thousands of travellers who have paid for, and booked months ahead, their long-awaited package holidays or trips to see their loved ones.

“And this, during the super peak period with the upcoming UK holidays, and at a time when many people are desperate to travel after two years of pandemic restrictions.

“Emirates believes in doing the right thing by our customers.

“However, re-booking the sheer numbers of potentially impacted passengers is impossible with all flights running full for the next weeks, including at other London airports and on other airlines.

“Adding to the complexity, 70 per cent of our customers from LHR are headed beyond Dubai to see loved ones in far flung destinations, and it will be impossible to find them new onward connections at short notice.”

Emirates flies in and out of London with the Airbus A380.

Emirates airline said it had rejected the demands to cut capacity despite being threatened with legal action, and that it would continue to operate to schedule.

“At London Heathrow airport (LHR), our ground handling and catering – run by dnata, part of the Emirates Group – are fully ready and capable of handling our flights,” it said.

“So the crux of the issue lies with the central services and systems which are the responsibility of the airport operator.

“Moving some of our passenger operations to other UK airports at such short notice is also not realistic.

“Ensuring ground readiness to handle and turnaround a widebody long-haul aircraft with 500 passengers onboard is not as simple as finding a parking spot at a mall.

“The bottomline is, the LHR management team are cavalier about travellers and their airline customers.

“All the signals of a strong travel rebound were there, and for months, Emirates has been publicly vocal about the matter.

“We planned ahead to get to a state of readiness to serve customers and travel demand, including rehiring and training 1,000 A380 pilots in the past year.

“LHR chose not to act, not to plan, not to invest. Now faced with an ‘airmageddon’ situation due to their incompetence and non-action, they are pushing the entire burden – of costs and the scramble to sort the mess – to airlines and travellers.”

London’s Heathrow said it wanted to work with airlines to cap the number of departing passengers, adding that it would be “disappointing” if any carrier wanted to put profit ahead of “a safe and reliable passenger journey”.

“For months we have asked airlines to help come up with a plan to solve their resourcing challenges, but no clear plans were forthcoming and with each passing day the problem got worse,” a Heathrow spokesperson said.“It would be disappointing if instead of working together, any airline would want to put profit ahead a safe and reliable passenger journey.”

Originally published as Emirates lashes London Heathrow Airport for traveller caps and cuts