Emirates has released an update on its row with Heathrow over the airport’s recent decision to cap daily passenger numbers over the summer.
Last week the Gulf carrier had published a strongly worded statement condemning what it called the “entirely unreasonable and unacceptable” move by Heathrow, which Emirates said had given it just 36 hours to comply with capacity cuts.
In response Heathrow said that “We have tried to be as supportive as possible to airlines and our 100k cap on daily departing passengers is significantly higher than the 64k cap at Schiphol”, adding that “it would be disappointing if instead of working together, any airline would want to put profit ahead a safe and reliable passenger journey”.
But in a more conciliatory joint statement the two companies said that Emirates’ president and Heathrow’s CEO had held “a constructive meeting”, with the Dubai-based airline agreeing that it was “ready and willing to work with the airport to remediate the situation over the next two weeks, to keep demand and capacity in balance and provide passengers with a smooth and reliable journey through Heathrow this summer”.
Emirates also said that it had capped further sales on its flights out of the London hub airport until mid-August “to assist Heathrow in its resource ramp up”, adding that it was “working to adjust capacity”.
In the meantime the carrier said that its flights out of Heathrow – which currently number six per day – would operate as scheduled, and tickets passengers would be able to travel as booked.
Heathrow’s capacity cap is due to remain in place until September 11, with CEO John Holland-Kaye stating that “By making this intervention now, our objective is to protect flights for the vast majority of passengers at Heathrow this summer and to give confidence that everyone who does travel through the airport will have a safe and reliable journey and arrive at their destination with their bags”.
