Flying high: Heathrow says it is ready for the great Christmas getaway
(Picture: Heathrow Airport)Heathrow airport insists it is ready for its biggest Christmas in three years and has a “good plan” to avoid passenger chaos.
It came after it was warned by the boss of its second biggest airline, Virgin Atlantic, that it must provide an “absolutely stellar” service after multiple delays and cancellations this summer.
Heathrow said 5.9 million passengers passed through its terminals last month, an increase of almost 94 per cent on October last year.
This included a 256 per cent increase in the number of travellers heading to or from North America, its second biggest market after the continent.
Heathrow said it had served 50m passengers so far this year, 74 per cent of 2019 levels and the biggest increase of any airport in Europe. It said the leisure market had been “buoyant” for the school half-term holidays and there had been a “gradual” return of business travellers.
A shortage of ground and security staff was blamed for problems this summer but Heathrow said it was on track to get back to pre-pandemic employment levels before next summer’s peak.
Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said: “We have come so far since Omicron grounded Christmas travel plans last year. Heathrow, our airline partners and their handlers are all working together to make sure everyone can be reunited with their loved ones this Christmas.”
But it came as MPs representing west London constituencies called on the Government to ban night flights at Heathrow to ensure residents did not suffer repeated “noise disruption”.
Sarah Olney, the Lib-Dem MP for Richmond Park, told a parliamentary debate that “the delays and chaos” this summer resulted in an increased number of flights landing through the night.
She said: “This disturbance is completely avoidable. Night flights are by no means essential for airport operations. These flights can and should be moved and it is within the Government’s remit to ensure that that happens.”
She and Lib-Dem colleague Munira Wilson, who represents Twickenham, called for a ban on scheduled flights between 11pm and 6am.
Ms Olney said that, at present, an average of 16 flights per night were permitted to land at Heathrow each year between the hours of 11.30pm and 6am, but others received “special dispensation” to land if delayed by weather or air traffic control disruption.
From July to September this year, 231 flights were granted dispensation and a total of 475 unscheduled night flights arrived at or departed from Heathrow, she said.
