Irish passengers hit by Heathrow capacity reduction as two Aer Lingus flights cancelled

Some Irish passengers are likely to be affected by new rules brought into effect at Heathrow, as officials work to cope with travel delays.

The British airport has been subject to similar issues seen at Dublin Airport and opted to bring in a daily cap on flights to cut down on queues and chaos.

As a direct impact of these new rules, Aer Lingus had to cancel two one-way flights from London Heathrow to Dublin and Shannon today.

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This marks some of the first flights to be cut in line with the cap, and Aer Lingus says it is awaiting further direction from Heathrow to confirm the actual impact on its future schedules amid the summer season.

Up to September 11, Heathrow has restricted its capacity to 100,000 daily departing passengers due to a lack of resources.

The airport said it has ordered airlines to "stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on passengers".

Explaining the new rules, Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye last week said: "Over the past few weeks, as departing passenger numbers have regularly exceeded 100,000 a day, we have started to see periods when service drops to a level that is not acceptable: long queue times, delays for passengers requiring assistance, bags not travelling with passengers or arriving late, low punctuality and last-minute cancellations.

"This is due to a combination of reduced arrivals punctuality (as a result of delays at other airports and in European airspace) and increased passenger numbers starting to exceed the combined capacity of airlines, airline ground handlers and the airport.

"Our colleagues are going above and beyond to get as many passengers away as possible, but we cannot put them at risk for their own safety and well-being."

It has not yet been confirmed if flights to and from the second-biggest airport in the UK this weekend will be affected by these changes.

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