Heathrow orders more flight cancellations, hitting 10,000 passengers

Capacity reduction follows problems with Terminal 3 baggage system at the weekend

Virgin Atlantic was among the airlines affected (Simon Calder)

Britain’s biggest airport ordered airlines to ground dozens more flights on Monday, hitting the travel plans of more than 10,000 passengers.

Forty-eight outbound departures were cancelled at Heathrow, together with 15 arrivals as the hub was unable to handle the expected number of passengers.

Airlines have been asked to rebook affected travellers to alternative flights on different days.

Baggage system failures at Terminal 3 over the weekend resulted in hundreds of bags not being put onto flights.

British Airways, which is already cancelling 18 per cent of summer flights due to resource shortages, has axed the most services.

The Heathrow departures screen shows 36 outbound domestic and European flights axed, including two departures each to Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. It is understood that many of these were pre-planned cancellations. In addition, BA long-haul departures to New York JFK and Austin are show as cancelled.

Virgin Atlantic has grounded flights to Austin and Delhi, while Air France cancelled its early departure to Paris CDG.

A Heathrow spokesperson said on Sunday night: “We are expecting higher passenger numbers in Terminals 3 and 5 tomorrow than the airport currently has capacity to serve, and so to maintain a safe operation we have asked some airlines in Terminals 3 and 5 to remove a combined total of 48 flights from the schedule.

“We apologise for the impact to travel plans and we are working closely with airlines to get affected passengers rebooked onto other flights.”

Affected passengers are not entitled to cash compensation, because the cause of cancellation is beyond the airlines’ control.

In normal circumstances they could hope to be rebooked on the same day on other flights from Heathrow, but Virgin Atlantic says the airport has asked airlines not to offer same-day alternatives to limit passenger numbers.

Virgin Atlantic blamed “significant security delays and baggage system failures this weekend” for the cancellations.

A spokesperson said: “Our teams are working hard to ensure customers can complete their journey as quickly as possible, with the option to rebook on a later date or request a refund.

“Working closely with Heathrow and partners, our collective focus is on our customers, ensuring we minimise the impact to their journeys.

“We’re also doing everything we can to locate and return any bags that missed flights to customers as quickly as possible, loading them onto the next available services. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to affected customers.”

Separately, low-cost European carrier Wizz Air said it will cancel more summer flights due to airport and staffing chaos.

The Hungarian airline, which is listed in London, said it would trim its capacity by another 5 per cent as part of efforts to avoid flight cancellations and delays.

Wizz Air said: "To be able to avoid cancellations and secure a more punctual operation to our customers, we have further improved the agility and resilience of our network including adjusting schedules where we have seen a higher occurrence of issues... In total for the peak summer period we expect to reduce utilisation a further 5 per cent versus the plan outlined at the full-year results to reduce the impact of ongoing external disruptions."

Meanwhile, Heathrow has published its traffic figures for the first half of the year. Between January and June 2022, the airport handled 26 million passengers – two-thirds of the 39 million who passed through Heathrow in the same six months in 2019.

The airport’s chief executive, John Holland-Kaye, said: “Last month, we saw exponential growth in passenger numbers as nearly six million people got away – the equivalent of 40 years of growth in just four months.

“I am very proud of the way that our team is rising to the challenge of growth, and giving excellent service to the vast majority of passengers. However, we have already seen times recently when demand exceeds the capacity of the airport, airlines and ground handlers.

“We will review the schedule changes that airlines have submitted in response to the government’s requirement to minimise disruption for passengers this summer and will ask them to take further action if necessary.

“We want everyone who is travelling through Heathrow to be confident that they will have a safe and reliable journey.”

Heathrow made a similar “intervention” on 30 June, cancelling 30 flights.