Heathrow warns of further disruption as it axes 61 flights

In a statement, the airport said it was expecting higher passenger numbers in Terminals 3 and 5 on Monday than it "currently has capacity to serve", and as result had asked some carriers to remove a total of 61 flights from the schedule.

British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Air France were among the affected airlines.

It added: "We apologise for the impact to travel plans and we are working closely with airlines to get affected passengers rebooked on to other flights."

The aviation sector - which was floored by the pandemic - has struggled to cope with the surge in demand this year, as Covid-19 restrictions eased and peopled started travelling again. Passengers have endured long queues to get through security and passport control, lost luggage and flights cancelled with little or no notice.

Heathrow said it had witnessed the same growth in passenger numbers over the last four months as it had during the last 40 years. Nearly 6m people travelled through the airport in June, up from 957,000 in June 2021, when Covid restrictions were still in place. It remains well below the 7.25m recorded in June 2019, however.

In total, Heathrow had 26.1m terminal passengers in the first six months of 2022, compared to 3.8m during the same period in 2021, when the UK was in lockdown for much of it.

It acknowledged that service levels in recent weeks had "not been acceptable, with long queues, delays for passengers with reduced mobility, bags not travelling with passengers or arriving late, and we want to apologise to any passengers that have been affected by this".

In an attempt to ease the chaos the government has called on airlines to either commit to running flights or to cancel them "with plenty of time to spare". It also announced a short-term slot amnesty, so that airlines could cancel flights without fear of penalty, which ended on Friday.

British Airways - Heathrow’s largest carrier - has already announced it is cutting its summer schedule, which runs from April to October, by 11%.

But John Holland-Kaye, chief executive of Heathrow, said: "We have already times recently when demand exceeds the capacity of the airport, airlines and ground handlers.

"We will review the schedule changes that airlines have submitted in response to the government’s requirement to minimise disruption for passengers this summer and will ask them to take further action if necessary."