Emirates has criticized London Heathrow’s decision to curtail flights, calling it “Armageddon” and saying it will ignore the move amid a growing backlash from airlines against the airport’s attempt to prevent travel disruption.
Dubai’s state-owned airline said the airport’s decision to reduce flights and limit passenger numbers until the end of the summer was “completely unreasonable and unacceptable”.
The UK’s busiest airport, which is 20 percent owned by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, a regional aviation rival to Dubai, this week imposed a daily limit on the number of departing passengers for the first time, ordering airlines to stop selling tickets in the next two months.
On Thursday, Emirates said it had been given 36 hours from Wednesday night to comply with the capacity reduction in a figure “that appears to have been pulled out of nowhere”.
Sir Tim Clark, president of Emirates, described Heathrow’s request for the airline to cancel one of its six daily A380 superjumbo flights to Dubai as a “breach”.
Heathrow dictates the specific flights from which paying passengers should be banned and threatens legal action for non-compliance, the airline added.
“We reject these requests,” Emirates said in a statement. The airline intends to operate as scheduled until further notice. “We don’t have a choice,” Clark said.
It is almost unheard of for major airlines and airports to disagree about schedules and whether to operate flights.
Heathrow has insisted it controls the airport’s operations and can ground airline flights, but described this as an unlikely last resort.
The pushback by the Gulf carrier is the first public sign of a major row brewing over the airport’s decision to take major steps to prevent more disruptions over the summer.
Heathrow announced this week that no more than 100,000 people will be able to fly each day departing from the airport until September 11, down from the 104,000 seats planned under current plans.
Heathrow has told airlines it expects the industry co-ordinator to take around two weeks to sort out the new timetables, which will mean more flights will be canceled to bring passenger numbers below 100,000 a day.
An airline executive said Heathrow had meanwhile imposed emergency measures until July 24 which sought to force airlines to cancel flights and stop selling tickets for any outbound journeys.
Airlines were surprised by the emergency measures and called on the UK government and aviation regulator the Civil Aviation Authority to block them. They are also assessing the legality of the moves, the executive said.
The CAA and the government on Thursday wrote to Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye asking for information “what measures you plan to take to ensure that the capacity level is not exceeded”.
The letter, seen by the Financial Times, said the CAA and the government were “concerned” that the current resource plans of both the airport and the airlines were not sufficient to provide an acceptable passenger experience ahead of the school holidays.
British Airways said it would have to cancel “a small number of additional flights” as a result of the Heathrow restriction, which it said was “incredibly disappointing”.
Heathrow said it had been asking airlines to line up their resources for the summer “for months”.
“There were no clear plans and every day the problem got worse. . . It would be disappointing if, instead of working together, any airline would want to put profit before a safe and reliable passenger journey,” the airport said.
Emirates’ six daily A380 superjumbo flights had been operating at full capacity for weeks and were booked for the following weeks, and there was limited ability to divert passengers to other services, Clarke said.
“We’re about to start the school holidays with all flights completely sold out and no alternatives – people are going to be left behind one way or another,” he added.
Emirates said its Dnata unit was able to meet the airline’s ground handling and catering needs, although central services and systems remained the responsibility of the airport operator.
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Clarke said Heathrow should have been able to increase staffing levels last year to meet the expected “tsunami of demand”, as Emirates did.
“Heathrow needs to better understand the reputational damage all of this will do to Emirates,” he said. “They will blame the airlines, not themselves.”
He accused Heathrow of focusing on recovering losses incurred during the coronavirus pandemic rather than focusing on recruitment.
The Gulf carrier described itself as a “key and steadfast” operator at Heathrow after restoring six daily A380 flights since October last year.
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