Emirates hopes to resolve 'travel chaos' at London Heathrow within 2 weeks

Dubai's flagship airline, Emirates, hopes to engage with Heathrow Airport (LHR) to resolve the 'ongoing travel chaos' over the capping of departure numbers to 100,000 passengers. In an interview with the BBC, the president of Emirates Airlines,

Tim Clark, said, "We are going to work with them (LHR), and I am sure they will accommodate us without taking the draconian measures they suggested two days ago."

Clark said, "The travelling public must come first about the flights they booked and paid for. We have school holidays coming out of the UK… and full flights into the Indian Ocean operations, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, and such countries."

He confirmed, "We cannot afford to let our people down. We will engage with Heathrow and get it sorted within the next week or two."

Summer plans of thousands of holidaymakers were thrown into chaos after Britain's biggest airport took the unprecedented step of capping passenger numbers. The airport banned daily outbound numbers from exceeding 100,000 over fears airlines can't safely handle any more due to staff shortages.

In an open letter to passengers on the capacity cap, London Heathrow Airport CEO John Holland-Kaye, said, "We assess that the maximum number of daily departing passengers that airlines, airline, ground handlers and the airport can collectively serve over the summer is no more than 100,000."

He added. "The latest forecasts indicate that despite the amnesty, daily departing seats over the summer will average 104,000, giving a daily excess of 4,000 seats. On average, only about 1,500 of these 4,000 daily seats have been sold to passengers."

Moreover, Kaye requested airline partners to stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on passengers. Following Emirates Airlines' strong objections, Kaye has been ordered by the British Civil Aviation Authority and Department of Transport to confirm by noon Friday 'a credible recovery plan' as airlines clash with the airport over flight caps.

In response to the announcement, Emirates Airlines strongly rejected demands made by Heathrow, calling them entirely 'unreasonable and acceptable'. Clark also said Emirates sold out many of the tickets in the UK sector months ago.

"This is difficult and challenging for us when many of them (tickets) have been sold out for a few months. The ability for us to re-book those passengers to other flights is impossible because they are all full. Gatwick operations are full, and other carriers are full. We are faced with a real possibility that passengers would be arriving at Heathrow and unable to travel."

He added, "This is something we (Emirates) do not do, and we do not accept these terms." Clark said the airline began its A380 operations out of Heathrow in October last year.

- dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com