British Airways has reportedly suspended short-haul ticket sales from Heathrow for at least a week.
Tens of thousands of flights have already been canceled this summer as the industry struggles to cope with demand for air travel amid staff shortages.
The Times reported that BA suspended tickets for domestic and European services until and including Monday to meet Heathrow’s passenger capacity limit, and the airport announced last month that no more than 100,000 passengers are allowed to depart daily until September 11.
The airline previously responded to Heathrow’s cap on passenger numbers by announcing it would cancel 10,300 flights until October, with one million passengers affected.
Many passengers flying there from the UK’s busiest airport have suffered severe disruption in recent months, with long security queues and baggage system breakdowns.
Emirates last month rejected Heathrow’s order to cancel flights to meet the cap.
The airline accused the airport of showing “blatant disregard for consumers” by trying to force it to “deny seats to tens of thousands of passengers” through the border.
A Heathrow spokesman said at the time that it would be “disappointing” that “any airline would want to put profit ahead of a safe and reliable passenger journey”.
Virgin Atlantic also criticized the airport’s actions and claimed it was responsible for failures contributing to the chaos.
On July 21, the airlines were accused of “harmful practices” in the treatment of passengers affected by disruptions.
The Competition and Markets Authority and the Civil Aviation Authority issued a joint letter to carriers, expressing concern that “consumers could suffer significant harm unless airlines meet their obligations”.
The letter said: “We are concerned that some airlines are not doing everything they can to avoid engaging in one or more harmful practices.”
These include selling more tickets for flights “than they can reasonably expect to offer”, not always “fulfilling obligations” to offer flights on alternative airlines to passengers affected by cancellations, and not providing consumers with “sufficiently clear information and prior to their rights”. “.