Heathrow Airport ordered airlines to cancel 61 flights at short notice on Monday as it could not handle the expected number of passengers. It is the latest blow for passengers amid a summer of delays and cancellations at the nation's biggest airport.
A spokeswoman for the airport said: “We are expecting higher passenger numbers in terminals three and five today than the airport currently has capacity to serve, and so to maintain a safe operation we have asked some airlines in terminals three and five to remove a combined total of 61 flights from the schedule.
“We apologise for the impact to travel plans and we are working closely with airlines to get affected passengers rebooked onto other flights. While Heathrow is ramping up resource and will have as many security officers this summer as we had pre-pandemic, airspace constraints across Europe and a lack of airline ground-handling staff can pose a risk to the smooth running of operations.
