TikTok videos blamed for London airport chaos, says executive

The chief executive of London’s Heathrow airport said a viral trend on the social network TikTok is worsening the chaos plaguing tourists at the British terminal this summer.

In an attempt to avoid long lines and hours of waiting, he said, able-bodied travelers have begun requesting wheelchair assistance to get through check-in, security and immigration checks.

John Holland-Kaye, chief executive of Heathrow Airport, told LBC radio that there are now significantly more passengers requesting special assistance than before the pandemic, even though the airport is serving fewer passengers than in 2019.

the trick

“Why is this happening? Part of this is because people are using the wheelchair mount to try to FastTrack through the airport, and we need to protect that for the people who need help the most,” Holland-Kaye said. “If you use TikTok, this is one of the travel tricks people are recommending – please don’t do this, we need to protect the service for the people who need it most.”

Last month, influencer Wolf Jenkin sparked heated debate after he filmed himself faking an ankle injury to quickly enter Turkey’s Bodrum airport because he feared missing his flight if he was forced to join the long lines of others. passengers. Since that incident, other influencers have suggested that requesting special assistance is an effective way to avoid long lines and get priority boarding.

Chaos at Heathrow

Heathrow Airport was recently notified by aviation regulators of alleged shortfalls in its special assistance service, with increasing numbers of genuinely disabled people being forced to wait hours for airport staff to be available to help.

In a recent incident, a quadriplegic airline passenger was abandoned on a British Airways aircraft at London’s Gatwick airport for an hour and a half after special assistance services failed to appear.

Heathrow insists passengers are now experiencing “a smooth and reliable journey” through the airport, but warned on Tuesday that it could extend a capacity limit until 2023 if airlines do not hire more ground-handling personnel.