Virgin Atlantic has urged Heathrow not to impose capacity limits over Christmas after the airport admitted it was working on a “mechanism” to prevent winter flight cancellations.
Heathrow is preparing to remove its summer capacity cap on Sunday, but confirmed yesterday that it was drawing up plans to manage high passenger volumes in partnership with airlines later this year.
The announcement prompted Virgin Atlantic to urge Heathrow to use “accurate forecasts” from airlines and to avoid bringing in passenger capacity limits over Christmas.
The carrier called on Heathrow to change its “deliberately pessimistic outlook” otherwise customers would continue “to risk a poorer airport experience”.
“Heathrow is once again Europe’s busiest airport, outperforming its own forecasts, yet it continues to downplay the strength of returning passenger demand,” a Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said.
“The airport has a poor track record of forecasting, having projected just 45 million annual passengers for 2022 when the reality is it will top 62m. Without summer caps, numbers would have been higher still.
“Airlines have repeatedly warned of the need to use accurate forecasts to inform airport resourcing.”
The Virgin Atlantic spokesperson accused Heathrow of “artificially” limiting supply in the summer “to counter a lack of adequate preparation and to win an economic argument that would double passenger charges”.
“We urge Heathrow to avoid passenger capacity limits during the peak Christmas travel window that would ruin customer plans,” the carrier’s spokesperson said. “Virgin Atlantic remains ready to deliver a full winter schedule and we expect Heathrow to do the same.”
In spring, Virgin Atlantic accused Heathrow of downplaying the pace of the industry’s pandemic recovery with “cynical forecasts” to secure “unjustified increases” in charges from the CAA.
To rebuild its finances after the pandemic, Heathrow has been pushing to increase fees that airlines pay to use its site.
The average maximum price per passenger airlines will pay Heathrow will drop from £30.19 today to £26.31 in 2026.
Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive at the Advantage Travel Partnership, said further capacity caps were “not acceptable and not a long-term viable solution every time there is a peak period”.
She added: “The airport should be ensuring they are planning adequately to meet demand. The last thing the travel industry needs right now is anything that dampens consumer confidence to travel over Christmas.”
Guy Hobbs, editor of Which? Travel, called for clarity from Heathrow about its winter plans.
He said: “News that Heathrow may implement yet another passenger cap will be hugely concerning for those planning to travel through the hub this winter, with thousands now anxious as to whether their Christmas plans could be left in ruins.
“Passenger caps cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely, and the aviation industry and government must work together to get a handle on the chaos that continues to plague travellers this year.”
But Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye hit back by accusing airlines of capitalising on pent-up demand after two years of Covid restrictions.
Asked if carriers had kept fares artificially high, he told The Telegraph: “Completely. Airlines have put their prices up over the summer.”
And he called on carriers to look at their own fare policies and the impact they have on demand.
“I’d love to be wrong, I’d love for us to get back to a higher level of demand quicker. A lot of that depends on the airlines and their pricing policies – as to whether they decide to fill seats or maximise their profits, [which is] what they tend to focus on at Heathrow,” the airport’s boss was quoted as saying.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “We are removing the cap from 30 October. We are working with airlines to agree a highly targeted mechanism that, if needed, would align supply and demand on a small number of peak days in the lead up to Christmas.
“This would encourage demand into less busy periods, protecting the heavier peaks, and avoiding flight cancellations due to resource pressures.”