Heathrow Imposes Cap On Daily Passenger Numbers

Heathrow has imposed a daily cap of 100,000 departing passengers at the airport with immediate effect.

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Heathrow Airport At Night
Heathrow Airport At Night (Image Credit: Heathrow)

London Heathrow has imposed a cap on daily passenger numbers across the airport with immediate effect.

Heathrow considers that the airport, its airlines and ground handlers do not have the capacity to handle more than 100,000 departing passengers a day.

Passenger numbers will be capped at this number with immediate effect until Sunday 11 September 2022.

Heathrow has also asked airlines to stop selling tickets for this period.

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Heathrow Forced To Cut Passenger Charges

The Civil Aviation Authority has proposed that Heathrow airport must cut it passenger charges by 2026.

London Air Travel » Airports » London Heathrow

London Heathrow Terminal 5A, May 2020
London Heathrow Terminal 5 (Image Credit: Heathrow)

The cost of flying from Heathrow is set to fall as the Civil Aviation Authority is to force the airport to cut passenger charges.

The CAA has set out its proposals on Heathrow’s passenger charges for its next five year control period from January 2022 to December 2026, known as H7.

The last control period expired on 31 December 2021. Late last year, the CAA allowed an interim increase of Heathrow’s maximum passenger charge from £19.36 to £30.19. This was a substantially larger increase than any other major European airport.

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Virgin Atlantic Gains Heathrow Slots For Tampa, Florida

Virgin Atlantic has secured slots at London Heathrow for a new route to Tampa this winter.

London Air Travel » Airports » London Heathrow

Tampa Cityscape
Tampa Cityscape (Image Credit: Visit Tampa Bay)

Airport Coordination Ltd, the body responsible for allocating slots at London airports, has published its first reports for the coming winter season.

Before going any further, these come with a number of health warnings:

  • They are not final, but do indicate which airlines want slots at Heathrow and for which routes.
  • Airlines may be allocated slots, but do not take them up. This can be for commercial reasons, or the slot timings are not suitable.
  • Airlines will make a number of route changes that do not feature in these reports.

All that said, here are some headlines:

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London Heathrow Terminal 4 Reopens 14 June 2022

London Heathrow Terminal 4 will reopen to passenger flights on 14 June 2022.

London Air Travel » Airports » London Heathrow

Terminal 4, London Heathrow Airport (Image Credit: Terminal 4)

Terminal 4 at London Heathrow airport will reopen to passenger flights on Tuesday 14 June 2022.

The Terminal closed to departing flights in 2020 as Heathrow consolidated all flights in Terminals 2 & 5 in response to COVID-19.

There were doubts as to whether Terminal 4 would reopen. Before closing, the terminal hosted a relatively small number of flights.

Terminal 4 is not the easiest location to operate at as it is south of Heathrow’s two runways. That said, its reopening will relieve congestion at other terminals.

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Aeroflot’s Heathrow Airport Slots Forfeited

Airlines will be able to apply for Aeroflot’s former Heathrow slots from the winter 2022 season onwards.

London Air Travel » Airports » London Heathrow

Airfield, London Heathrow Airport (Image Credit: Heathrow)

On 19 May 2022, the UK government announced sanctions against three Russian airlines in respect of their airport slots.

Aeroflot, Rossiya Airlines and Ural Airlines are all subject to asset freezes in the UK. They are prohibited from selling or leasing their UK airport slots. This follows previous measures prohibiting Russian aircraft from entering UK airspace.

Airport Coordination Ltd, the body responsible for allocating slots at Heathrow has today, 26 May 2022, published guidance on how this will work in practice.

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Heathrow Terminal 4 To Reopen By July 2022

Heathrow Airport plans to reopen Terminal 4 to passenger flights by July 2022.

London Air Travel » Airports » London Heathrow

Terminal 4, London Heathrow Airport (Image Credit: Terminal 4)

Heathrow Airport plans to reopen Terminal 4 to passenger flights by July 2022.

Terminals 3 & 4 were originally closed in 2020 as the airport consolidated flights in Terminals 2 & 5 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There were doubts as to whether Terminal 4 would ever reopen. Before COVID-19, it hosted a relatively small number of daily flights.

Terminal 4 is also not an easy location for airlines to operate from as it’s situated south of Heathrow’s two runways.

Whilst the UK government’s “Red List” was in place, Terminal 4 did act as an arrivals terminal for passengers arriving from red list countries.

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London Heathrow Airport Adds £5 Drop Off Charge

From Monday 1 November 2021, a £5 charge will apply to vehicles dropping off passengers at the forecourts of London Heathrow Airport terminals.

London Air Travel » Airports » London Heathrow

Terminal 3 Forecourt, London Heathrow Airport (Image Credit: Heathrow)

On Monday 1 November 2021 London Heathrow Airport will introduce a £5 charge for all vehicles dropping off departing passengers at its terminal forecourts.

This will apply to all vehicles, including private hire cars. There are limited exemptions and discounts for Blue Badge holders, emergency vehicles, motorbikes, coaches and staff buses.

Black cab taxis registered with London Taxi and Private Hire will benefit from a 100% discount until 1 April 2022 to allow Transport for London to consult on changes to meter charges. Private Hire Vehicles do not benefit from this discount.

The charge will apply 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There are no given times or circumstances where it will be waived for all passengers.

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London Heathrow Terminal 3 To Reopen On 1 June 2021

Heathrow Terminal 3 will reopen on 1 June 2021 with a dedicated arrivals facility for passengers arriving from countries the UK government has placed on its “red list”.

London Air Travel » Airports » London Heathrow

Heathrow Airport At Night
Heathrow Airport At Night (Image Credit: Heathrow)

London Heathrow Terminal 3 will reopen on Tuesday 1 June 2021 with a dedicated arrivals facility for passengers arriving from countries the UK government has placed on its “red list”.

This follows criticism that passengers arriving from “amber” and “green” countries have faced long queues at the UK border and have consequently spent a long time in close proximity to passengers from “red” countries who are required to quarantine on arrival at a dedicated facility.

Terminal 3, along with Terminal 4, closed to passenger flights over a year ago as Heathrow Airport progressively consolidated all airlines at Terminals 2 and 5 in response to COVID-19.

It is planned that the dedicated arrivals facility will transfer to Terminal 4 as soon as practicable. This should then allow Terminal 3 to fully reopen to passenger flights so that airlines such as Delta and Virgin Atlantic can transfer all their flights back to Terminal 3.

At the time of publication there has been no comment from individual airlines as to how the new arrangement will work. It’s not clear whether aircraft will continue to arrive at Terminals 2 and 5, with passengers bussed to Terminal 3 to clear the UK border.

The dedicated arrivals facility will only apply to flights direct from “red list” countries, and not to passengers who have travelled indirectly via amber / green countries.

Passengers due to arrive from “red list” countries from 1 June 2021 are advised to check the latest guidance from Heathrow and the status of their bookings with their airline.

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easyJet & JetBlue Fail To Acquire Heathrow Slots

easyJet & JetBlue have been unsuccessful in applying for slots at London Heathrow Airport for the summer 2021 season.

London Air Travel » Airports » London Heathrow

JetBlue Airbus A321 Aircraft, Boston Logan International Airport
JetBlue Airbus A321 Aircraft, Boston Logan International Airport (Image Credit: London Air Travel)

easyJet and JetBlue have both been unsuccessful in applying for slots at London Heathrow for the summer 2021 season.

easyJet and JetBlue had applied for 98 and 42 weekly slots respectively from the pool at Heathrow and none were awarded.

They were far from alone. Each season a large number of airlines apply to Airport Coordination Ltd for slots from a pool of available slots. Almost all get nothing. Slots from the pool are very hard to come by as they only become available when forfeited or handed back by an airline, which most go to great lengths to avoid.

Other airlines that were unsuccessful in applying for slots include Air Baltic, Alitalia Cityliner, Blue Air, Brussels Airlines, Eastern Airways, Loganair, WestJet and Widereo. Unsurprisingly, Norwegian did not apply for any slots at London Heathrow this summer. Only Shenzhen Airlines managed to secure a mere 4 weekly slots.

That does not mean that any of these airlines won’t serve Heathrow this summer. Blue Air will fly from London Heathrow to Bucharest from 1 December 2020 and Cluj-Napoca from 1 March 2021.

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Qatar Airways & Japan Airlines Move To LHR Terminal 5

Qatar Airways and Japan Airlines will relocate to London Heathrow Terminal 5 from Monday 27 and Wednesday 29 July.

London Air Travel » Airports » London Heathrow

London Heathrow Terminal 5 Check-In Concourse
London Heathrow Terminal 5 Check-In Concourse (Image Credit: British Airways)

Qatar Airways and Japan Airlines are to temporarily relocate to London Heathrow Terminal 5.

Both airlines had temporarily relocated to Terminal 2 due to the closure of Terminals 3 and 4.

They will now move to Terminal 5 from Monday 27 and Wednesday 29 July 2020 respectively where they will join fellow Oneworld alliance members American Airlines, BA and Iberia.

Note that at the time of publication, this is not reflected in all online timetables.

It may seem odd these airlines are moving terminals twice due to COVID-19, this is most likely due to systems issues at Terminal 5 which were originally designed for BA.

Although not confirmed, timetables indicate that Finnair will relocate to Terminal 5 from Saturday 15 August.

In terms of other Oneworld alliance members, Cathay Pacific, LATAM, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Royal Jordanian, Royal Air Maroc and SriLankan Airlines remain at Terminal 2, to the extent they are operating international flights from London Heathrow.

Currently, Heathrow airport does not expect Terminal 3 to reopen until late 2020 at the earliest. This will depend on how demand recovers in the autumn. Terminal 4 is not expected to reopen until 2021 at the earliest.