Heathrow urges airlines to invest in ground handlers

London Heathrow has urged airlines to “step up” their investment in ground handling staff to help solve the disruption affecting aviation this summer. The UK hub airport has capped departing passenger capacity at 100,000 per day until 11 September in a bid to cope with rising passenger numbers during the peak summer travel period. Nigel Milton, the airport’s chief of staff and carbon, insisted Heathrow was “well run” and had prepared for the summer peak season, despite “clickbait headlines focused on travel chaos”. He highlighted a shortage of ground handlers as a major cause of disruption to aviation, with 50% of these workers leaving the industry across Europe during the pandemic. “For months ground handling companies have been trying to recruit and train skilled workers, but if their airline customers aren’t willing to pay market rates, then they aren’t able to fill the posts,” added Milton. “Airlines have not secured any net increase in their ground handling resource at Heathrow since January – and this has become the constraint as demand has grown.” Milton called for airlines to improve their current operations by “stepping up investment in their ground handlers”. “If they do that, we can then all start focusing on rebuilding Britain’s world-beating aviation sector and getting back to giving our passengers the service they deserve,” he argued.<br/>