Airlines cancel, reschedule London flights as Heathrow restrictions kick in

Heathrow Airport’s decision to cap the number of departing passengers at 100,000 a day in order to limit queues, baggage delays and cancellations has impacted flight schedules between India and London.

On Thursday, Virgin Atlantic, for instance, cancelled its morning flight between London and Delhi. And Air India rescheduled its London-Ahmedabad flight by several hours.

With the Heathrow restrictions to remain in place till September 11, air traffic between India and London is likely to see slower growth over the next two months. The move to limit passengers comes as the UK's busiest airport struggles to cope with a surge in traffic.

The decision will result in airlines cancelling or rescheduling their flights or moving them to an alternative airport in the UK.

Air India, Vistara, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic operate daily between India and the UK. Air India operates 33 flights per week to London (Heathrow) and one weekly flight to Birmingham. Vistara operates a daily flight between Delhi-London. Passengers also travel one stop via transit hubs in Europe and West Asia between the two countries.

Heathrow has asked airlines to cancel some of their flights till July 25. Airlines, meanwhile, are looking at ways to minimise cancellations and offering to reschedule passengers instead.

"Discussions are on," said an airline executive. As a subsequent measure, limiting the number of departing passengers per flight has also been discussed. "Air India has been sounded out on capping seats on sale. It is too early to guess the impact on the same," the airline said in a statement.

A Vistara executive said it had no update on London Heathrow operation. Virgin Atlantic said impacted passengers would be rebooked on alternative flights.

Dubai-based Emirates criticised Heathrow’s decision. “Rebooking the sheer number of potentially impacted passengers is impossible with all flights running full for the next [few] weeks, including at other London airports and on other airlines," Emirates said.

The airline operates six Airbus A380 daily between London Heathrow and Dubai. "Until further notice Emirates plans to operate as scheduled to and from London Heathrow," it said. 

A Heathrow airport spokesperson, meanwhile, said: "We are working with airlines to adjust schedules to ensure passenger levels do not exceed the available capacity of airlines, airline ground handlers and the airport. This will result in changes to flight schedules as the changes are worked through in line with the new cap. All of this is designed to give passengers a better, more reliable journey through the airport and to keep everyone working at the airport safe."

In July and August 2019, Heathrow had between 110,000 and 125,000 daily passenger departures. Heathrow has said that the average number of outbound seats remaining in the summer schedules is 104,000 a day – exceeding the 100,000 cap by 4,000.

The airport’s decision comes at a time when the India-UK air travel market had seen a rebound, with seat capacity in May back at 94 per cent of 2019 level (according to aviation consultancy Centre for Aviation, or CAPA).

Other major European hubs such as Amsterdam, too, have imposed a cap on traffic amid surge in demand and labour shortages.