BBC
Heathrow Airport has told airlines to stop selling summer tickets, as the UK's biggest airport struggles to cope with the rebound in air travel.

The airport is limiting the number of passengers who can depart each day over the peak summer months to 100,000, 4,000 fewer than currently scheduled.

The cap on passenger numbers will be in place from now until 11 September.

Thousands of UK travellers have been affected by disruption in recent weeks, including last-minute cancellations.

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In addition, a temporary government "amnesty" to the rules on airport slots was put in place, allowing airlines to change their summer schedules without facing a potential penalty.

But despite this, Heathrow said airlines were still planning to operate flights carrying more daily passengers than could be processed in an acceptable manner.

"Over the past few weeks, as departing passenger numbers have regularly exceeded 100,000 a day, we have started to see periods when service drops to a level that is not acceptable: long queue times, delays for passengers requiring assistance, bags not travelling with passengers or arriving late, low punctuality and last-minute cancellations," said Heathrow boss John Holland-Kaye.

"Our assessment is that the maximum number of daily departing passengers that airlines, airline ground handlers and the airport can collectively serve over the summer is no more than 100,000.

"The latest forecasts indicate that even despite the amnesty, daily departing seats over the summer will average 104,000 - giving a daily excess of 4,000 seats. On average only about 1,500 of these 4,000 daily seats have currently been sold to passengers, and so we are asking our airline partners to stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on passengers."

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Heathrow isn't alone in introducing restrictions. Gatwick imposed a lid on daily flights several weeks ago.