Virgin Atlantic to resist Christmas capacity caps at Heathrow

Virgin Atlantic Airways CEO Shai Weiss pledged to resist any move to cap capacity at Heathrow airport in the lead up to Christmas after the hub said curbs may be needed due to staffing shortages. The airline controlled by billionaire Richard Branson intends to fly a full winter program and called on London’s biggest airport to use the 55 days remaining before Christmas to ensure no restrictions are needed after a turbulent summer. “Disrupting passengers now is completely unacceptable,” Weiss said in an interview Wednesday. “It’s just not possible. What are we going to tell people, you’re not going to see your family over Christmas? You’re not going to go on the vacation for which you’ve saved for two or three years? So we’ll be flying our full schedule.” The Virgin Atlantic CEO said he had expected Heathrow to confirm capacity curbs were a thing of the past after a ceiling of 100,000 departing passengers a day was scrapped at the end of the summer schedule, which was marred by lengthy delays due to a lack of workers. Instead, Heathrow boss John Holland-Kaye last week doubled down on warnings of further limits on the busiest days ahead of the festive season.<br/>