British Airways has suspended the sale of short-haul flights from Heathrow for at least a week.
The decision to halt new bookings on domestic and European services up to and including Monday is to meet Heathrow’s passenger capacity limit, the airline confirmed.
In a statement, BA said: “As a result of Heathrow’s request to limit new bookings, we have decided to take responsible action and limit the fares available on some Heathrow services to help maximize change options of bookings for existing customers, given the restrictions placed on us and the current challenges facing the entire aviation industry.”
The unprecedented move will result in thousands of seats being withdrawn from sale and potentially increase demand and inflate prices with rival companies.
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.
Heathrow announced last month that no more than 100,000 passengers a day are allowed to leave until September 11.
BA had previously responded to Heathrow’s cap on passenger numbers by announcing it would cancel 10,300 flights until October, with one million passengers affected.
The suspension of BA’s short-haul flights from Heathrow comes after many passengers flying there from the UK’s busiest airport have suffered severe disruption in recent months, with long queues and breakdowns luggage system
Middle Eastern airline Emirates rejected Heathrow’s order to cancel flights to meet its 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 spokeswoman for Heathrow 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.
Meanwhile, 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”. “.