The airline has refused point blank to cut its schedules and blames the airport for the disruption completely, saying its ground handling and catering – run by dnata, is part of the Emirates Group, which is fully ready and capable of handling all their flights.
Emirates is a key and steadfast operator at LHR, having reinstated 6 daily A380 flights since October 2021. It added that in the last 10 months its regularly high seat loads and requirements cannot be a surprise to Heathrow, so it, therefore, rejects demands from the airport to cut any capacity or flights.
Furthermore, Emirates who says all the disruption issues lie with the central services and systems which are the responsibility of the airport operator also accused the airport of having a 'blatant disregard for consumers' as it is seeking to force Emirates to deny seats to tens of thousands of travellers who have paid for, and booked months ahead, their long-awaited package holidays or trips to see their loved ones.
Emirates said that as its flights are mostly full, it wouldn't be able to cancel them and "70% of our customers from LHR are headed beyond Dubai to see loved ones in far-flung destinations, and it will be impossible to find them new onward connections at short notice."
"The LHR management team are cavalier about travellers and their airline customers. All the signals of a strong travel rebound were there, and for months, Emirates has been publicly vocal about the matter. We planned ahead to get to a state of readiness to serve customers and travel demand, including rehiring and training 1,000 A380 pilots in the past year."
In a stinging attack, Emirates blamed Heathrow's Management for not planning in advance, not investing enough down to "Their incompetence."
In an increasingly bitter and acrimonious turn, Emirates encouraged Heathrow's shareholders to revolt and kick out the current management team.
"Until further notice, Emirates plans to operate as scheduled to and from LHR." the airline claims - how long that statement remains true is a matter of debate and the matter is very likely to end up in court if the tensions continue to escalate to such temperatures exhibited by Emirates.
However, it continues to highlight the realisation that the UK Aviation Industry as a whole, is broken and on the very brink of collapse. Airlines and blaming governments, airports and air traffic control, airports are blaming airlines and the government, the government is blaming airports and airlines and the ones that really suffer are us, the passengers.
