In a statement on Monday (15 August), the airport said after consultation with airlines its current limitation of 100,000 daily departing passengers would run until 29 October.

Last week, Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said the controversial cap introduced in July was delivering "better, more reliable journeys". 

Heathrow added the limit would be “kept under regular review” and could be lifted early should there be "a sustained picture of better resilience and a material increase in resourcing levels", most notably around airline ground handlers.

The airport launched a review into ground handling last week as part of an assessment of its wider operations.

“We will be working with airlines and ground handlers to understand how we can unlock more capacity in this critical part of the airport, enabling us to meet passenger demand in the months and years ahead,” Heathrow said.

Heathrow’s chief commercial officer Ross Baker said: “Our primary concern is ensuring we give our passengers a reliable service when they travel. That’s why we introduced temporary capacity limits in July which have already improved journeys during the summer getaway.

“We want to remove the cap as soon as possible, but we can only do so when we are confident that everyone operating at the airport has the resources to deliver the service our passengers deserve.”