Emirates will persist to fly to Heathrow but has compromised not to sell additional tickets till the mid of August due to delays and disruptions at Europe’s busiest airport.
Operational and technical issues have marred Heathrow during recent weeks, which caused flight cancellations and lengthy queues for check-in and baggage handling issues.
On Tuesday, Heathrow airport sparked controversy as it imposed a cap of 100,000 departing passengers daily and asked airlines to stop selling more tickets for this summer.
The demands of Heathrow were rejected by major airlines such as Emirates, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways, which stated they would continue their services as per the schedule.
In a joint statement given by Sir Tim Clark, Emirates president and John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow chief executive, stated both companies had a constructive meeting on Friday, July 15, in which they decided to keep demand and capacity in balance.
The statement stated, “Emirates has agreed that the airlines were ready and willing to work with the airport to remediate the situation during the next two weeks, to keep the demand and capacity in balance and provide travellers with a smooth and reliable journey via Heathrow this summer.”
Emirates has stopped further sales on its flights out of Heathrow till mid-August to help Heathrow in its resource ramp-up and is operating to adjust capacity.
In the meantime, Emirates from Heathrow will fly as scheduled, and ticketed passengers can travel as scheduled.
Heathrow and a few other European airports have capped passenger numbers to battle flight delays and cancellations caused due to the rise in demand and staff shortages following massive layoffs during the pandemic.
Last year, in December, Heathrow stated that it predicted passenger numbers for 2022 to reach around 45 million.
It subsequently raised its prediction to around 53 million in May and 54.4 million last month.