Tourists to the United Kingdom this summer should prepare for months of possible disruptions and alterations in flight schedules due to a cap introduced on the number of passengers at London’s Heathrow airport.
The cap was introduced this week as part of efforts to avoid long queues and to lessen volumes of lost baggage and flight cancellations.
Airlines were asked to stop selling more tickets to the west London airport to limit the effect on passengers, with Gulf carriers readying for changes to current flight schedules during the coming months.
Etihad Airways stated that a flight from London to Abu Dhabi on Thursday, July 14, would set off over three hours earlier than already scheduled in order to avoid peak congestion.
An Etihad spokesperson has said that, because of the result of capacity limits set by Heathrow Airport, Etihad Airways has been forced to re-set flight EY26 going from London to Abu Dhabi on Thursday, July 14.
The flight will now leave earlier than scheduled at 5.20 pm rather than 8.45 pm to avoid the extreme congestion period at Terminal 4.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi to London are the most preferred routes during summer, as many strives to escape from the desert heat and visit families back home.
Currently, London Heathrow gets around 104,000 passengers per day, but under the new rules, the number has been reduced to 100,000 to lessen the risk of delays or cancellations.
Only around ten flights a day are predicted to be impacted, roughly 600 around the next two months of this year.
The airport is predicted to field some of the 70,000 flights in total during that time period.
Legal action against London Heathrow has been warned by service provider Swissport because of the consistent decline in flights, as staffing plans for a busy summer season have already been made.