The carrier will now suspend new bookings until 15 August due to the airport’s inability to cope with increasing passenger numbers. The latest revelation comes a day after the carrier said it was not taking any new bookings until 8 August.

BA has had to freeze bookings to leave space on its flights for passengers whose original flight has already been consolidated or who, for example, miss connections and now faces missing out on lucrative last-minute bookings for the summer getaway.

On Tuesday (2 August), BA told The Independent: “Short-haul flights departing from Heathrow will now be closed for sale until 15 August 2022 in all channels. These flights will not be available to book via ba.com or via our partners.”

BA told TTG: "We took pre-emptive action to reduce our schedule this summer to give customers certainty about their travel plans and to build more resilience into our operation given the ongoing challenges facing the entire aviation industry.

"When Heathrow introduced its passenger cap, we took a small number of additional flights from our schedule and to continue to comply with the cap, we’ve been taking responsible action by limiting sales or all the available fares on some of our Heathrow services to ensure more seats are available to rebook customers.

"We’ll continue to manage bookings to be within the Heathrow imposed cap so we can get our customers away as planned this summer."

It added some long-haul flights could also be affected: "We’re predominantly focussing on short-haul due to the number of flights we have but it will also impact long-haul on some dates/routes."