British Airways Is Suspending Sales of Short Haul Flights from Heathrow for One Week
by Daniel McCarthy /British Airways on Tuesday announced that, in response to a recent request from London Heathrow Airport to limit bookings, it is suspending sales of all short-haul flights for about a week.
The move will limit ticket sales for flights from Heathrow to some other short-haul U.K. and European cities until Monday, Aug. 8. The limit only includes outbound flights and does not limit flights landing at Heathrow.
In a statement, British Airways said the move was a “responsible action” in response to “the restrictions imposed on us and the ongoing challenges facing the entire aviation industry.”
Heathrow imposed a cap of 100,000 daily departing passengers from July 12 through Sept. 11 in order to deal with ongoing passenger disruptions. London Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said that the airport had made the decision because that is the amount of passengers staff at Heathrow is able to serve each day.
The 100,000 figure is less than the average daily summer departures of 104,000 from Heathrow and the airport specifically asked its airline partners, including British Airways, to stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on passengers.
Heathrow had previously apologized for disruptions, including long lines at security and missing baggage, at the airport during its monthly traffic update. Holland-Kaye said Heathrow has seen “exponential growth in passenger numbers as nearly six million people got away—the equivalent of 40 years of growth in just four months” in June.