Emirates has criticised London Heathrow’s decision to limit flights as “airmageddon”, and said it would ignore the move in a growing backlash from airlines against the airport’s attempt to avert travel disruption.
The Dubai state-owned airline said the airport’s decision to cut flights and limit the number of passengers for the remainder of the summer was “entirely unreasonable and unacceptable”.
The UK’s busiest airport this week introduced a daily limit on the number of departing passengers for the first time, telling airlines to stop selling tickets over the next two months.
On Thursday, Emirates said it had been given 36 hours from Wednesday night to comply with capacity cuts of a figure “that appears to have been plucked from thin air”.
Heathrow dictated the specific flights from which paying passengers should be barred and threatened legal action for non-compliance, the airline added.
“We reject these demands,” Emirates said. The airline intends to operate as scheduled.
It is almost unheard of for major airlines and airports to disagree over flight schedules and whether to run flights.
Given the Emirates decision to ignore the cap and continue with its planned schedules of full planes, Heathrow has not been able to force airlines to comply, one industry executive said.
While some airlines have cancelled flights in response to the cap, “it does not look like there have been enough” to get passenger numbers below 100,000 per day, the person said.
Heathrow announced this week that no more than 100,000 people would be able to fly each day on departures from the airport until September 11, a reduction from 104,000 seats scheduled under current plans.
The pushback from the Gulf carrier is the first public sign of a significant row developing over Heathrow’s decision to take major steps to avert more summer disruption.
An airline executive said Heathrow had since imposed emergency measures running until July 24 that attempted to force airlines to cancel flights and to stop selling tickets for any outbound flights.
Airlines were taken by surprise by the airport’s action and have appealed to the government and UK aviation regulator to block it. They are also assessing the legality of the moves, the executive said.
British Airways said it would have to cancel “a small number of additional flights” as a result of the Heathrow cap, which it said was “incredibly disappointing”.
Willie Walsh, the former BA boss who now runs airline lobby group Iata, said earlier this week that Heathrow’s measures were “ridiculous”.
Heathrow said it had asked airlines to sort out their resourcing for the summer “for months”.
“No clear plans were forthcoming and with each passing day the problem got worse . . . It would be disappointing if instead of working together, any airline would want to put profit ahead of a safe and reliable passenger journey,” the airport said.
Emirates described London Heathrow management as “cavalier” about travellers and their airline customers.
“With blatant disregard for consumers, they wish to force Emirates to deny seats to tens of thousands of travellers who have paid for, and booked months ahead, their long-awaited package holidays or trips to see their loved ones,” it added.
Emirates said its unit, Dnata, was capable of meeting the airline’s ground handling and catering needs, although central services remain the responsibility of the airport operator.
The Gulf carrier described itself as a “key and steadfast” operator at Heathrow, having reinstated six daily A380 superjumbo flights since October.
Although a fraction of the 70,000 scheduled flights at Heathrow over the next two months, it still means about 10 flights per day and more than 600 in total will have to be cancelled, according to rough calculations by industry executives.
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