We are used to passengers taking to social media to express their dissatisfaction with how the summer of European travel chaos has unfolded over the past few months. We have also grown accustomed to the straightforwardness of the Irish in the aviation industry. When put together, travel disruption frustration and Irish candor can indeed produce some pretty colorful comments.

Downplaying speed of recovery

Speaking at the Farnborough International Airshow on Monday, IATA's Willie Walsh had some choice words for how Heathrow was handling recovery - and how the airport had failed to prepare for the rebound in traffic, despite being given every opportunity to do so by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Walsh stated, commenting on the financial support of £300 million offered to London Heathrow,

"My belief is Heathrow was gaming the CAA in relation to the economic regulation which was going through, trying to downplay the pace of recovery and the scale of recovery to have us all convinced that Heathrow was going to lag the world in terms of recovering passenger numbers when everybody was saying the opposite."

Mr Walsh said that Heathrow had been "absolutely fixated" on the regulatory review and therefore understated the forecast for return of passenger demand.

"They were downplaying the number of passengers in case of recovery, saying that it would be something like 2026, maybe 2027, before it recovered. They initially projected 44.5 million passengers at Heathrow this year. They then upped it to 50.4 million."

No excuses

Meanwhile, Mr Walsh may be opposed to the generally applied term of 'travel chaos', stating that while some airports are indeed facing major issues (as anyone who has traveled out of Amsterdam Schiphol lately, courtesy of four-hour queues, can attest to), the problem isn't "as widespread as the headlines would have you believe." However, for Heathrow, Mr Walsh says there are "no excuses."

"They should have been ready. They should have been better prepared. The airport should be functioning better. (...) So it's ridiculous, but then Heathrow are a bunch of idiots, to be honest with you when it comes to running airports. They just don't know how to do it."

What is the big deal?

So what exactly has been going on with London Heathrow to prompt such harsh comments from the former IAG Chief Executive? Safe to say, the airport has not handled the rebound in air travel over the past few months well, and operations have suffered tremendously from staffing shortages. Travel disruptions have seen new records, causing the airport to cap daily passenger numbers to the chagrin of airlines ordered to halt ticket sales.

The cap announcement came after British Airways had already canceled thousands of flights through October to avoid last-minute cancelations and losing coveted airport slots. Some carriers, namely Emirates, have refused to comply with Heathrow's passenger number restrictions. What affected airline CEOs may have called Heathrow management while figuring out which flights to scrap shall be left to your imagination.

Have you been affected by the travel disruptions at Heathrow? How? Leave a comment below and share your story.