Virgin Atlantic slams Heathrow curbs, moots bid for own terminal

Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. called on regulators to ensure London’s Heathrow airport returns to full capacity next summer and linked his support for a third runway to measures that improve competition with British Airways, such as Virgin’s own dedicated terminal. CEO Shai Weiss is concerned that 2023’s peak season will see a repeat of capacity caps imposed by the hub earlier this year amid staffing shortages, he said Monday at the Airlines 2022 conference in London. Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority “must not allow our only hub airport to sleepwalk into another entirely avoidable period of disruption,” Weiss said. “It should be responsive and accountable to its customers and cannot be allowed to unilaterally restrict capacity.” Heathrow imposed a cap of 100,000 departing passengers a day through much of the summer schedule amid a lack of workers. While that limit was removed at the end of October, CEO John Holland-Kaye has warned the customer tally won’t match the pre-pandemic level of 81 million until 2025 or even 2026. Weiss, who has previously accused Heathrow of playing down the strength of the recovery as it seeks CAA permission to hike fees, said the hub must make more “honest and accurate passenger forecasts” in its resource planning. Heathrow initially forecast a passenger tally of 45m this year but now projects as many as 62m, and regained its status as Europe’s busiest airport over the summer. The hub had also intended to impose ad hoc curbs on capacity in the lead up to Christmas, but dropped the plan amid pressure from Virgin and other operators.<br/>