Heathrow on Tuesday said it’s asking airlines to stop selling tickets, as it struggles to cope with a recovery in demand.
The largest airport in the U.K., owned by Spain’s Ferrovial
FER,
said its assessment is that it cannot handle more than 100,000 passengers per day, and even the introduction of a slot amnesty — where airlines are not charged for not using their capacity — isn’t enough to help matters.
“The latest forecasts indicate that even despite the amnesty, daily departing seats over the summer will average 104,000 – giving a daily excess of 4,000 seats. On average only about 1,500 of these 4,000 daily seats have currently been sold to passengers, and so we are asking our airline partners to stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on passengers,” said John Holland-Kaye, chief executive of Heathrow.
Heathrow on Monday had said they had seen 40 years of passenger growth in just 4 months.
Shares of British Airways owner International Airlines Group
IAG,
edged 0.3% lower after tumbling nearly 6% on Monday.
