Passengers face 11-hour stopover as Qantas rejigs London A380 schedule

Qantas has been forced to reschedule two flights out of London’s Heathrow Airport this week, following the airport’s decision to impose a limit of 100,000-passengers per day in the hope of easing congestion amid extended delays.

The London-Singapore-Sydney QF2 service on Tuesday July 19 will now depart nine hours earlier than usual – at 12 noon, and from Heathrow Terminal 4 instead of the usual Terminal 3 – in an effort to avoid the peak-hour passenger crush.

However, this will leave hundreds of passengers on the Airbus A380 superjumbo facing an 11-hour stopover in Singapore once the plane lands around 8.30am – with Qantas saying it will provide passengers with accommodation – before the flight continues to Sydney on its regular timetable, with a 7.30pm departure and 5am touchdown.

The airline says it is contacting all passengers booked on Tuesday’s QF2 flight to alert them to these changes.

“Like all airlines, we’re disappointed at the decisions made by Heathrow Airport to suddenly reduce passenger capacity and we are doing all we can to minimise the impact of this on our customers,” a Qantas spokesperson told Executive Traveller.

“We have two flights a day to London and we want to preserve them at all costs given people’s travel plans are at stake.”

“We’ve managed to negotiate a workaround that isn’t perfect but will get our customers to their destination. We continue to work with Heathrow on improving this situation.”

The departure of Sunday’s London-Perth flight QF10 was delayed by three hours due to Heathrow Airport’s directive.

At the time of writing these are one-off changes, rather than an ongoing re-timing of Qantas’ two flagship flights on the Kangaroo Route.

Airlines scramble to cut flights

Heathrow Airport’s introduction of passenger caps from July 12 to September 11 amid staffing shortages and surging travel demand left airlines scrambling in the peak travel season. 

Heathrow Airport CEO John Holland-Kaye says the reduction of an estimated 4,000 passengers per day will give travellers “confidence that everyone who does travel through the airport will have a safe and reliable journey and arrive at their destination with their bags.”

British Airways was among the first airlines to reduce capacity, scrapping a swathe of flights for the summer season, with Virgin Atlantic quickly joining the cull.

Qantas partner Emirates initially rejected the airport's sudden demands in a strongly worded statement, saying the “airmageddon” situation at the airport was the result of the hub’s own incompetence. However, it has since backed down and trimmed schedules to suit. 

Following discussions between the Emirates President and Heathrow CEO, the Gulf carrier says it’s now “willing to work with the airport to remediate the situation over the next two weeks, to keep demand and capacity in balance and provide passengers with a smooth and reliable journey through Heathrow this summer.”

Flying six times daily between London and Dubai on its A380, Emirates has agreed to cap sales on its flights out of Heathrow until mid-August, giving the hub a chance to ramp up resources.

Qantas’ twice-daily flights between Australia and Heathrow carry a maximum of 1442 passengers, which represents just 1.4% of total passengers under the airport’s cap.

Heathrow has struggled to cope with surging summer travel demand in recent weeks, with reports of three hour-plus waits at the carousel and many passengers arriving at their destination to find their bags didn't even make it onto the flight. 

As a result, many passengers are turning to the use of high-tech tracking devices to keep an eye on their belongings, as well as seeking compensation for delays via the EU261 and UK261 consumer rights laws.