Heathrow airport warns it could extend cap on flights

London’s Heathrow airport has warned that a limit on the number of daily flights may stay in place longer than expected as the aviation industry struggles to overcome unprecedented levels of travel disruption. John Holland-Kaye, CE of Heathrow, said a shortage of ground handling staff was the biggest issue affecting capacity at the UK’s busiest airport. He blamed airlines for not being quick enough to hire despite Heathrow raising the issue as a concern for the past nine months, and noted that the airport’s own resources were back on track. Heathrow earlier this month introduced a cap of 100,000 passengers a day until September 11, while airlines were told to stop selling tickets for summer getaways. The cap, which prompted a backlash from some carriers including Emirates, will stay in place until airlines bolster their ground handling staff. “It will not be a quick fix. It will need some real focus and effort by everyone to replace the ground handling resource that has been lost,” Holland-Kaye said. He warned that if airlines do not start to recruit then “we might find ourselves in the same position next summer.” Heathrow started bulking up its own operations in November last year, which included hiring 1,300 people in the past six months. The airport said its own resources were sufficient to cope with about 85% of the traffic seen before the pandemic in 2019 and that this was broadly in line with current demand. <br/>