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Emirates refuses to stop selling seats at Heathrow’s request
The passenger cap at Heathrow has not gone down well with airlines. Frankly, I’m not surprised. Airlines pay a very high price compared with other airports to fluy in and out of Heathrow and on top of that Heathrow were trying to raise prices dramatically too. One airline has had enough and refused to action Heathrow’s demands of a 100,000 departing passengers per day.
Emirates released a media statement in which it said,
“highly regrettable that LHR last evening gave us 36 hours to comply with capacity cuts, of a figure that appears to be plucked from thin air. Their communications not only dictated the specific flights on which we should throw out paying passengers, but also threatened legal action for non-compliance.
This is entirely unreasonable and unacceptable, and we reject these demands.
At London Heathrow airport (LHR), our ground handling and catering – run by dnata, part of the Emirates Group – are fully ready and capable of handling our flights. So the crux of the issue lies with the central services and systems which are the responsibility of the airport operator.
Emirates is a key and steadfast operator at LHR, having reinstated 6 daily A380 flights since October 2021. From our past 10 months of regularly high seat loads, our operational requirements cannot be a surprise to the airport.
Now, with blatant disregard for consumers, they wish to force Emirates to deny seats to tens of thousands of travellers who have paid for, and booked months ahead, their long-awaited package holidays or trips to see their loved ones. And this, during the super peak period with the upcoming UK holidays, and at a time when many people are desperate to travel after 2 years of pandemic restrictions….
….The bottomline is, the LHR management team are cavalier about travellers and their airline customers. All the signals of a strong travel rebound were there, and for months, Emirates has been publicly vocal about the matter. We planned ahead to get to a state of readiness to serve customers and travel demand, including rehiring and training 1,000 A380 pilots in the past year.
LHR chose not to act, not to plan, not to invest. Now faced with an “airmageddon” situation due to their incompetence and non-action, they are pushing the entire burden – of costs and the scramble to sort the mess – to airlines and travellers.
The shareholders of London Heathrow should scrutinise the decisions of the LHR management team.
Until further notice, Emirates plans to operate as scheduled to and from LHR
I fully agree with very the statement says. However, the interesting part will be how Heathrow reacts and whether other airlines then have to cancel more services as a result. Emirates, like Qatar and Etihad, have a business model built on connecting passengers which make rebooking those affected extremely difficult. But nearly all the airlines at Heathrow have a certain amount of connecting passengers so this is just passing the buck onto other airlines, or leading to longer queues at the airport. Personally, I can’t see the CEO of Heathrow airport lasting much longer in his position.
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7 comments
Emirates statement was utterly brutal and totally on-point. Bravo to them and it makes you ask why BA etal hasnt saod the very same thing long ago as LHR has been an absolute farce for ages now.
They had decent lead times on reopening and were part of the process. They chose to lay off staff despite the generous taxpayer funded furlough scheme and now expect ex staff to come back on considerably worse terms which they’re literally laughing at as they say “thanks but no thanks”. Still seem able to payout those share dividends no problem.
A health dose of public mocking and calling out is both well deserved and much needed.
LGW is paying out £250 “shift premiums” to security staff to try and keep on top of things as much as possible. Taking a large chunk out their bottom line to at least try and bridge the partially self created staffing gaps airports the world over find themselves in. Ive not heard of LHR doing likewise or coming up with another scheme to try and maintain some semblance of customer service levels ( any LHR staff who know otherwise please correct me on this if it is happening and I just haven’t heard about it).
BA isn’t doing the same because their ground operations are also struggling, so they’d be on pretty thin ice.
The DUB link doesnt seem to work. Error code 403
It seems to be working for me in several browsers which is odd.
I agree with Emirates So often in life one NEEDs to stand up and take a stand but few folk with courage to do so.
Learnt this as a young teenager surfing in Cornwall. “There’s a girl out the drowning. someone ought to do something.” Always the mysterious “somebody” (else)
Folk love to wring their hands say something needs to be done.. and do nothing themselves.
The parable about the Samaritan. People prefer to “pass by”
Likewise about LHR
Many moan about LHR and until Emirates nobody DID anything.
Not just LHR we all need to stand up about so much rather than just wring our hands.
Well done Emirates
deryck
Well done Emirates, now let’s hope the others follow the lead because LHR had been too badly managed for too long. It’s a cash cow paying directors big bonuses, shareholders big dividends while treating the travelling public with contempt.
Oppssee, Emirates lost their nerve a little by the looks of it, agreeing to reduce flights according to BBC web site. Shame they folded so fast, I wonder why…..
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