Heathrow, Delta boards 1,000 bags and zero passengers (but there's a reason)
Cancelled flights, hours of delays, lost luggage: the complicated summer for air transport and especially for passengers continues. The [...]
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Cancelled flights, hours of delays, lost luggage: the complicated summer for air transport and especially for passengers continues. The pandemic, staff shortages and the (gigantic) upswing in demand have contributed to sending several airports into a tailspin.
The situation at London Heathrow
Among the most problematic are the London airport of Heathrow, one of the most important hubs for routing European and international flights. For the past few weeks, the airport has been experiencing a black situation, to say the least.
Despite timely efforts to reorganize ground staffing, the London airport continues to have important figures, such as the Baggage handlers, severely undersized. This has certainly contributed to a very high number of lost suitcases and of cancelled flights.
With London's airports virtually collapsing, British Airways has already announced the cancellation of more than 10,000 flights for the summer season. And, for other operators, the situation is far from rosy.
Thus, Heathrow decided to put a cap on passenger numbers, asking airlines to stop selling tickets. By imposing as a maximum daily threshold, that of 100.000 passengers, all until September 11.
Lost suitcases: Delta's decision
What is most unnerving passengers, in addition to canceled (often last-minute) flights, is the loss of luggage.
In recent days, one of the most surreal events has involved Delta Airlines. The American airline has implemented a creative solution to reconcile 1000 luggage left stranded with rightful owners.
The Atlanta-based carrier has made available a plane wide-body to fly 1,000 pieces of luggage expected by owners in the United States. This all happened following a regular flight departing from London Heathrow Airport and destined for Detroit. Flight, this one, suddenly canceled due to passenger transit limits imposed by the London airport.
Delta Airlines itself made this known, explaining how passengers were moved to other Delta flights. Precisely because of this change, it was necessary to deploy a Airbus A330-200 empty to retrieve and get the 1,000 bags to their destination.
Once they arrived in Detroit, thanks to Flight 9888, the luggage was distributed around the United States to the people to whom it belonged.
David Elges, 56, was among the passengers on the Delta flight that departed from London's Heathrow Airport whose luggage failed to arrive at its destination. Elges recounted that he woke up several times in the days following the flight to call the airline. The calls were to inquire about his luggage, two large suitcases and two garment carriers. A Delta customer service operator reassured the passenger by saying that a special flight would soon be arranged to bring the stranded luggage back to the United States in London. So it was.
Despite widespread disruptions and rising prices due to inflation, consumer demand for travel remains solid for now. In recent days Delta Airlines reported a quarterly profit of $735 million and said it expects strong demand in the fall as well.
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