Aer Lingus to cut Shannon flight to meet Heathrow cap

Aer Lingus has decided to cull one of its flights to Shannon from Heathrow each day this week in order to meet the London airport’s cap on passenger numbers.

The Irish airline had said on Friday that it would cut either one or two flights each day between Heathrow and Ireland as airlines scramble to rearrange schedules.

Over the weekend, the airline cut flights to Dublin and to Cork on separate days to meet what it has called “the mandated flight cancellations”.

The airline has now decided that the flight being sacrificed this week will be the 7.20pm trip from London Heathrow to Shannon.

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That is the airline’s last flight of the day to Shannon, according to the airline’s timetable, and will mean anyone looking to travel there this week from Heathrow will have to use either the 9.20am or the 2.45pm service.

Airlines have been instructed to cut flights from Heathrow in order to bring the number of outgoing passengers moving through the airport down to 100,000 a day between now and September 11th. According to airlines, the London hub has threatened legal action if voluntary flight cuts are not forthcoming.

Passenger disruption

Aer Lingus has said it will look to minimise disruption to passengers on the flights by reallocating them where possible to one of its other flights out of Heathrow. However, that might present issues for businesspeople travelling between the midwest and London, given how early the latest remaining flight out of Heathrow to Shannon will be this week.

A spokeswoman for the airline said it was “contacting impacted customers directly to apologise, advise them of their customer rights and offer options including rebooking or refund”.

However, some passengers have been less than satisfied.

“Let’s just be clear,” tweeted business adviser Emer O’Donnell. “Aer Lingus are doing nothing to accommodate passengers affected by cancellations. You receive a text with a link to rebook. They are charging the price difference on the flights. And god forbid you try to contact them by phone. Shocking customer service.”

Air Lingus’s sister airline, British Airways, has said it will not be cancelling any of its Irish flights. It will focus instead on taking six domestic and Amsterdam flights out of its schedule on the grounds that it can more easily accommodate those passengers on trains or from Gatwick or London City airports.

Some airlines, including Emirates, which flies six days a week to Dubai out of London, have so far refused to buckle to the airport’s demand, accusing it of showing “blatant disregard for consumers” by attempting to force it to “deny seats to tens of thousands of travellers” through the cap.

It said the 100,000 figure appeared to be “plucked from thin air”.

Aer Lingus was forced to cancel 17 flights over the weekend for a variety of reasons, including the Heathrow cap, industrial action in Europe and staff illness.