British press reported that the “chaos” at Heathrow continued or possibly even worsened today (Monday, July 18), with complaints not only of travellers queuing for hours, but travellers telling media that at 09h00, security queues were stretching outside the terminal and on to the pavement.

Some passengers reported waiting two hours at border control and the same length of time to collect their baggage. Another complaint from passengers was the fact that the airport had not put up temporary signage directing foot traffic, and this was only adding to the chaos.

Virgin Atlantic has warned agents to instruct their passengers to get to the airport a minimum of four hours before their flight.

And, because of the baggage chaos at London, and Britain’s most important airport, the airline “highly recommends” that pax take only hand-luggage wherever possible, and that they get their baggage wrapped. 

“Connecting flights are at high risk of luggage not making it on to flight due to the system issues at LHR,” says Virgin, in a notice to trade.

Emirates-Heathrow row blows over

Meanwhile, just one day after a fiery exchange between Emirates and Heathrow Airport, in which the airline accused Heathrow of incompetence and for having a blatant disregard for consumers, the two parties issued a joint statement and the carrier has announced that it has agreed to cap flight ticket sales until mid-August.

The statement came after Emirates announced on Thursday, July 14, that it had rejected demands by Heathrow to cut capacity and intended to continue operating its six daily flights to Britain's busiest airport, despite a threat from LHR of legal action, according to Reuters.

Emirates now says it has capped further sales on its flights out of Heathrow until mid-August to assist Heathrow in its resource ramp-up.

In the meantime, EK’s six flights a day out of LHR will continue as scheduled, and those already ticketed will be able to travel.

Heathrow “asked” airlines to stop selling tickets ahead of the busy summer season, limiting passengers passing through the airport to 100 000 a day, to combat the pressure on an understaffed system, which has caused chaos at the airport for weeks.