'Broken system': Expert reacts to airlines pushing to end international traveler testing

New York (CNN Business)Heathrow Airport is asking airlines to stop selling any more tickets for travel this summer, as it announces a cap on passengers allowed to fly from the airport.

The London airport will limit passengers to 100,000 a day until September 11, as it struggles to cope with high demand and a lack of resources.
CEO John Holland-Kaye announced the “difficult decision” in an open letter to passengers, saying “over the past few weeks, as departing passenger numbers have regularly exceeded 100,000 a day, we have started to see periods when service drops to a level that is not acceptable… Our colleagues are going above and beyond to get as many passengers away as possible, but we cannot put them at risk for their own safety and wellbeing.”

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    Many airlines have been working to reduce the number of passengers going in and out of Heathrow. But Holland-Kaye said Heathrow’s latest forecast showed an excess number of seats had already been sold and therefore airlines needed to stop selling tickets now.

      “Even despite the amnesty, daily departing seats over the summer will average 104,000 — giving a daily excess of 4,000 seats. On average only about 1,500 of these 4,000 daily seats have currently been sold to passengers, and so we are asking our airline partners to stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on passengers”

      In 2018, the daily number of passengers going through Heathrow was nearly 220,000, split between arrivals and departures.
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