Heathrow airport orders airlines to cancel 10% of flights today to cope with baggage backlog

Thousands of British holidaymakers faced chaos again at UK airports today as Heathrow ordered to cancel 10 per cent of their flights to cope with the baggage backlog – leaving 15,000 passengers stranded.

Passengers travel plans have been thrown into disarray at the eleventh hour following weeks of flight cancellations as the ongoing staffing crisis continues to cause mayhem at Britain’s travel hubs. 

90 flights are expected to be affected today after airlines flying from Terminals 2 and 3 at Heathrow were asked to scale back schedules.

Virgin Atlantic has cancelled at least three long-haul flights to destinations including New York and Los Angeles, while British Airways has been forced to make ‘a small number of cancellations’, the Independent reports. 

Three flights BA had planned to Toulouse in France have been grounded alongside two of the four Marseille departures.

Meanwhile, EasyJet said it is ‘proactively consolidating a number of flights’ at airports affected by ‘operational issues’, such as London Gatwick and Amsterdam’s Schiphol.

The airline expects its capacity between April and June to be 87 per cent of 2019 levels – rising to 90 per cent during the following three months.

Easyjet also stated there will be a ‘cost impact’ from disruption and the amount of money it spends to operate each seat per kilometre excluding fuel will ‘exceed’ previous guidance.

It added: ‘We believe that these capacity/cost impacts are a one-off this summer as we would expect all parties to build greater resilience in time for 2023 peak periods.’

EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said he could not provide a figure for the number or proportion of flights that will be cancelled as ‘we need to work this through’ as ‘it would be misleading for me to give any numbers today because we simply don’t know.’  

Mr Lundgren added: ‘The actions we’re taking, we do need to make sure that we can continue to operate a stable programme for the remainder of the summer. We believe it’s the right measure to take.’

The reason for the ongoing chaos has been due to a aviation staffing crisis – recruiting for roles such as security staff, ground handlers and check-in staff which is seeing passengers advised to arrive much earlier than normal for their flights because they are facing long queues. 

While many businesses in the aviation sector are struggling to rehire staff after many were let go during the pandemic due to a collapse in demand thanks to successive lockdowns, high levels of staff sickness for those who are still employed is also having an impact.

A Heathrow spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘We apologise unreservedly for the disruption passengers have faced over the course of this weekend. 

‘The technical issues affecting baggage systems have led to us making the decision to request airlines operating in Terminals 2 and 3 to consolidate their schedules on Monday 20th June. This will enable us to minimise ongoing impact and we ask that all passengers check with their airlines for the latest information.’

Today holidaymakers are facing even more travel chaos – with exceptionally lengthy queues at Bristol, Manchester and Heathrow Airport at 4am this morning.  

One ‘stressed out’ passenger who was queuing at Manchester took to Twitter and said: ‘I’ve been queuing for an hour and I’m not even at security… stress levels are through the roof!’ 

Meanwhile, Brussels airport has cancelled all departing flights today following a strike by security staff.

In a statement, the Belgian hub said: ‘Brussels airport has closed to all departures due to security strike.

‘No departing flights on Monday 20 June.

‘Due to the national manifestation and strike of a large part of the security staff of G4S on Monday 20 June, no passenger flights will depart from Brussels airport.

‘Passengers are urged not to come to the airport and to rebook their flight.

‘Only arriving (and cargo) flights will be carried out. Contact your airline to rebook your flight.’

The chaotic scenes came after one pilot was spotted loading luggage on to a plane, helping ground crew to load up to the plane with baggage ahead of an Edelweiss flight from Edinburgh airport.

The issue started on Friday with Heathrow chiefs blaming a ‘technical glitch’ in the luggage system. But it has sparked a huge baggage backlog which has been described a ‘carpet of luggage’.

Meanwhile, hundreds of passengers have reportedly been waiting up to three hours to retrieve their baggage today after flying into Heathrow.

A spokesperson for the west London airport said that there is ‘ongoing disruption’ from Friday’s glitch. But they said no additional baggage was being delayed.

They also said the airport was doing its best to ensure all passengers flying today can take their luggage with them – and reiterated that baggage is the responsibility of airlines and not the airport itself.

Simon Clarke, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, appeared on Sky News with Kay Burley this morning and said it’s ‘sensible’ that airports are ‘revising their schedules’ because it will prevent a repeat of the ‘terrible scenes’ passengers have been experiencing. 

He added: ‘What we’re seeing here is a result of the airline industry having massively contracted during the pandemic and now it’s facing this surge of pent-up demand as things stand back up.

‘It isn’t resourced and manned for that challenge and that’s why I think it is sensible that we’re starting to see some of the airports revising their schedules for the summer season ahead.

‘Frankly, we can’t have a repeat of the scenes we’ve had in some of our airports in recent weeks. 

‘The transport secretary and ministers have been working very closely with the airline industry to try and get it into a more sensible place because they are offering flights they simply can’t honour and that is simply terrible for passengers.’

Mr Clarke also addressed the baggage crisis happening at Heathrow and said the ongoing issues are due to the Covid pandemic which led to the airline industry ‘slimming down’ their staff and operations.

He added: ‘This is not a result of Brexit, what I would say is it’s an industry that massively slimmed down and understandably so – at a time when flying was impossible for a year and a half.

‘It’s now massively expanded its operations and the pressure is enormous and it hasn’t managed to align the two.

‘We will do our part as government to try and make sure our side of things is right from issues like passports to border control.

‘We’re pouring resources into this and making sure the process is as robust as it can be. The airlines need to do their part and make sure the flights they’re offering can indeed be honoured.

Yesterday huge queues built up at Stansted airport and some passengers described the scenes of people sleeping in the airport overnight as looking ‘like a shootout’. 

Labour shadow minister David Lammy was also caught up in the chaos yesterday morning – tweeting to his more than 780,000 followers to highlight the issue.

Taking a swipe at the Government, he wrote: ‘Another morning, another horrid queue at airport security! This time at Stansted. Well done Boris Johnson. Top marks Priti Patel. Welcome to #BacklogBritain’.

On Saturday, Heathrow passengers were yesterday been told they may not be reunited with their bags for days as the airport’s enormous luggage pile-up continues to grow due to an ‘issue with the baggage system’.

Staggering images showed how hundreds of bags are stacked together in what onlookers described as a ‘luggage carpet’ at one of the site’s terminals.

Bosses have apologised to customers, who were reportedly warned it could be two days before they are reunited with their belongings, and blamed the disruption on a ‘technical issue’ with the baggage system, which it says has since been resolved.  

Giving an update today, a Heathrow spokesperson said: ‘We unreservedly apologise for the technical issues with our baggage systems that have impacted passengers this weekend. 

‘We are working round the clock with airlines to re-unite passengers with their bags as quickly as possible. There may be some lingering disruption from yesterday’s technical baggage issues and we ask passengers to check with their airlines before travelling to the airport.’

The latest chaos comes after weeks of frustration at UK airports as the summer of discontent begins to take shape.

Hours of delays, hundreds of flight cancellations and people forced to sleep on airport floors have been common across UK airports in recent weeks as staff shortages bite.