Heathrow airport's boss today claimed there had been a material improvement in its performance due to the cap in passengers recently put in place.
Headlines have been dominated by problems at airports with baggage handling and checking in, and the London airport has announced it would limit the number of passengers departing each day over the peak summer months to 100,000 until September 11.
John Holland-Kaye, CEO, said: "Airline ground handler performance has been much more stable since the cap came into effect, and we have seen a marked improvement in punctuality and baggage performance."
There has been some pushback. Emirates initially refused to comply with the cap proposal before it added another Dubai service from Heathrow’s London rival Gatwick.
As airlines struggle to replace staff let go due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Heathrow said its capacity is constrained by a shortage of ground handlers.
Holland-Kaye's comments came after the airport reported a loss of £321mln in the first half of the year even though passenger numbers returned to near pre-Covid levels,
"Heathrow remains loss-making and we do not forecast any dividends in 2022," the airport said in a statement.
"Our adjusted loss before tax reduced by £466mln to £321mln as a result of higher passenger numbers, higher aeronautical charges offset by increased costs as we invested ahead of demand."
Passenger numbers increased by 577%, driving revenues to £1.28bn from £348mln last year.
Some 26.1mln passengers used the airport in the first six months of the year, up from 3.9mln in the comparative period in 2021.
The London hub said airlines were missing around 30% of ground handling staff compared with pre-pandemic levels and there had been no increase since January.
Due to staff shortages, long security queues, travel chaos, and baggage system breakdowns, thousands of flights were cancelled on top of the tens of thousands already grounded.
BA, which is part of International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (LSE:IAG), holds more than half of the slots at Heathrow and has cancelled 650 flights so far this month.