[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Amid the growing crisis of lost luggage at European airports, American airline Delta Air Lines operated a large aircraft from London Heathrow Airport in the UK, which limited the number of daily passengers due to staff shortages causing an 'aviation crisis,' carrying only luggage without any passengers.
According to Bloomberg and other sources on the 13th (local time), Delta Air Lines canceled a flight departing from London, UK, to Detroit, USA, on the 11th. This occurred as Heathrow Airport restricted the number of passengers amid chaos. Passengers who intended to use this flight had to take alternative flights.
Considering the increased number of lost bags on flights since COVID-19 earlier this year, Delta loaded only about 1,000 pieces of luggage onto the large A330-200 aircraft scheduled to fly that day. This included luggage belonging to customers who had previously booked. Delta stated that the luggage was returned to their owners after being transported from London to Detroit.
Ed Bastian, Delta's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), said during a conference call that day, "We arranged a separate charter flight solely to transport customers' luggage that had not been moved due to recent operational issues."
At Heathrow Airport, incidents such as transfer luggage not being loaded onto aircraft have continued since last month due to a shortage of available terminals. Considering this, Heathrow Airport limited the number of daily passengers to 100,000 until September and requested airlines not to sell tickets beyond this limit. The current capacity is around 100,000 passengers, and exceeding this was the reason for the restriction. Besides Heathrow, major airports across Europe are experiencing flight delays, cancellations, and luggage crises due to staff shortages.
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