UAE-UK travel: Emirates airline refuses to cut summer flights to Heathrow

UAE-UK travel: Emirates airline refuses to cut summer flights to Heathrow

It said it was not practical to move flights at short notice to other British airports

By Reuters Published: Thu 14 Jul 2022, 2:17 PM Last updated: Thu 14 Jul 2022, 2:59 PM

Dubai-based Emirates has rejected demands by London's Heathrow Airport (LHR) to cut capacity, saying it is “entirely unreasonable and unacceptable”. The airline plans to operate as scheduled to and from LHR until further notice.

On Tuesday, Britain's busiest airport capped the number of departing passengers at 100,000 a day and told airlines to stop selling tickets over the next two months in the face of baggage delays and long queues as it struggles to cope with a surge in travel.

“It is … highly regrettable that LHR last evening gave us 36 hours to comply with capacity cuts, of a figure that appears to be plucked from thin air. Their communications not only dictated the specific flights on which we should throw out paying passengers, but also threatened legal action for non-compliance,” the airline said in a statement.

The carrier’s ground handling and catering — run by dnata — “are fully ready and capable of handling our flights”.

“So the crux of the issue lies with the central services and systems which are