LONDON—London Heathrow Airport has told airlines it will lift a cap on passenger numbers at its terminals later this month, according to people familiar with the decision, ending one of the most extraordinary measures the aviation industry put in place this summer to deal with a surge in travel and a shortage of workers.
The cap, which limits daily departing passengers from its terminals to 100,000 a day, won’t continue beyond Oct. 29 when the official summer flying season ends, people briefed on the matter said.
The airport, Europe’s biggest before the pandemic, previously extended the restrictions, which had been due to end on Sept. 11. It had said it would keep the cap in place until enough staff and resources had been mobilized to prevent the long lines and persistent delays that characterized travel for much of this year.
Heathrow is one of a handful of airports that had put in place capacity restrictions—unusual in their duration and scale—to help cope with severe staffing shortages across almost every corner of the industry.
Airlines, airports and their suppliers have worked to rapidly bolster their operations after the sector was brought to a near standstill at the onset of the pandemic. A number of false starts, as travel restrictions were removed and then reintroduced with the spread of new Covid-19 variants, has impeded that recovery.
The London hub has repeatedly pointed to a shortage of ground handlers that it blamed for lines that have stretched outside its terminal doors, long waits at baggage reclaim, persistent departure delays and scrapped flights.
“This cap resulted in fewer last-minute cancellations, better punctuality and shorter waits for bags,” a spokeswoman for Heathrow said Monday. “Our focus has always been on removing the cap as quickly as possible—but we will only do so if…
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