Routes
While these airlines were content to cut services, others sought to take legal action against the airports that put these caps in place. Air Serbia, in protest of the restrictions at Amsterdam Schiphol, claimed in July the caps were causing the airline “great financial and reputational damage” by forcing it to limit the amount of passengers it could transport between Schiphol and Belgrade, Air Serbia’s home hub.
Even airlines that have bounced back quickly after the pandemic were more than happy to take some shots at the passenger capacity limits. Ryanair announced in August that it would be adding more than a million additional seats to its UK schedule in the winter of 2022, which it pitched to travellers against the contrast of capacity cuts by other airlines, BA in particular. The additional seats, Ryanair declared, are a “response to BA’s announcement that it will cancel 8% of its winter schedule (over 10,000 flights) due to staff shortages and capacity cuts at ‘Hopeless Heathrow’.” Here, the authorial voice of the airline’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, could clearly be heard – he had been pushing the ‘Hopeless Heathrow’ line throughout the passenger capacity limit debate, using it to highlight Ryanair’s partnership with London Stansted, which didn’t introduce passenger caps in 2022.
Organisational bodies and associations for airlines and air travel have remained steadfast in their opposition to passenger capacity limits. In August, in the wake of Heathrow’s implementation of said caps, Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and former head of BA, had some harsh words for the airport. “By capping passenger numbers, airports are preventing airlines from benefitting from the strong demand,” said Walsh. “Heathrow airport has tried to blame airlines for the disruption. However, service level performance data for the first six months of this year show they have failed miserably to provide basic services.”
The end in sight? However, there is reason to hope that the end of 2022 could see the end of most passenger caps, with 2023 seeing off the final stragglers. On 11 November, Heathrow announced that it would not reintroduce a cap on passenger number around Christmas, after its previous cap had wrapped up at the end of October. The airport had previously stated that it was working with airlines to find a way of “aligning supply and demand” on some peak days before Christmas, which drew tentative approval from airlines, with Airlines UK, the trade body for UK-registered airlines, noting that “any mechanism must be justified”.
Looking ahead at what the airport predicts will be the biggest festive travel season since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Heathrow stated that it now has a “good plan” developed, which would not require a cap on passenger capacity. At the time of writing, it is still
Future Airport /
www.futureairport.com
in discussions with airlines over the exact details, though it is believed that some flights might be moved to quieter times or consolidated where possible. Schiphol Airport, on the other hand, has extended its passenger capacity limit to March 2023, potentially causing issues over the winter period. Gatwick ended its cap after the summer period was over and has shown no indication that it might be reinstated in the new year.
Airlines, and the industry as a whole as it rebuilds from the effects of the pandemic, will hope that 2023 will prove a much smoother year where operations are concerned, and airports like Heathrow have indicated that they’re investing the time and money to address the staffing shortages that caused such issue in 2022. However, as noted earlier, strikes are continuing to take place across the industry, particularly in Europe – until the underlying conditions are treated, disruption could continue well into the future.
“UK airlines are building on this year’s recovery from the pandemic and delivering for their customers,” says a spokesperson for Airlines UK, in response to a query in early December about the potential of airports reintroducing passenger capacity limits in 2023. It expects “the whole aviation ecosystem, especially airports, to put the resources in place to allow airlines to operate normally and meet the strong demand for holidays, business trips and to meet friends and family that we all expect, without the need for caps on passenger numbers”. Of course, airports don’t want to reintroduce passenger limits either – it’s bad for business, reduces possible profits and damages passenger trust in air travel. However, the greatest effect of the pandemic on the industry – the loss of roughly 400,000 aviation staff during the spring and summer of 2020 across the world – is still deeply felt. Until this loss is properly addressed, airports and airlines will continue to struggle, even if passenger demand returns to pre-pandemic levels. ●
Owing to airport capacity caps, easyJet cancelled some flights in 2022.
100,000
The number of passengers a day that could pass through Heathrow Airport while its passenger cap was in effect.
Heathrow Airport 27
rzoze19/
Shutterstock.com
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