BA set to pause sales of long-haul flights from Heathrow - report

The airline already announced on Tuesday that it was suspending ticket sales for short-haul flights from Heathrow for at least a week.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for BA, which is owned by Spain’s IAG, told The Telegraph that the airline cannot rule out disruption to long-haul routes out of Heathrow while the daily passenger cap remains in place.

Heathrow announced last month that it was limiting the number of people allowed to fly per day at 100,000 until September in order to limit queues, baggage delays and cancellations.

Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said in a open letter at the time: "Some airlines have taken significant action, but others have not, and we believe that further action is needed now to ensure passengers have a safe and reliable journey.

"We have therefore made the difficult decision to introduce a capacity cap with effect from 12 July to 11 September.

"We recognise that this will mean some summer journeys will either be moved to another day, another airport or be cancelled and we apologise to those whose travel plans are affected."

The BA spokesman told The Telegraph that ticket sale suspensions were being dealt with on a case-by-case basis, with no blanket restrictions being imposed. For example, if ticket sales for a morning flight to New York were paused, travellers may still be able to book themselves on to an afternoon flight.