The UK's busiest airline claims it started planning for the summer rush nine months ago and blamed its recent problems on ground handling issues. Heathrow said a shortage of ground handlers is “the constraint on Heathrow’s capacity” as airlines struggle to replace staff let go due to the pandemic.
Heathrow said it has been raising concerns over the lack of ground handlers for months. It went on: “We estimate that airline ground handlers have no more than 70 per cent of pre-pandemic resource, and there has been no increase in numbers since January.
“In the second half of June, as departing passenger numbers regularly exceeded 100,000 a day, we started to see a worrying increase in unacceptable service levels for some passengers.”
