Heathrow airport said airlines including British Airways will need to further cut the number of flight departures over the summer, as it struggles to cope with the rebound in air travel demand.
The London airport said it is capping its daily passenger numbers to 100,000 per day over the summer, which could mean around 4,000 passenger numbers per day will be affected.
The cap will be in place from today until September 11, according to the airport.
Though the government has already asked airlines at Britain's largest airport to reduce capacity, Heathrow said it needed to go further, as Gatwick Airport did last month, due to a lack of staff.
"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," said Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye in a statement.
"We have therefore made the difficult decision to introduce a capacity cap with effect from July 12 to September 11. Similar measures to control passenger demand have been implemented at other airports both in the UK and around the world."
"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," he added.
The airport said 100,000 departing passengers can be handled by airlines, baggage handlers and the airport collectively, though the airport had shot past this number in recent weeks resulting in unacceptable service levels.
Heathrow forecasts a daily departure rate of 104,000 seats with the UK soon entering the key summer holiday season.
To minimise the impact on passengers, the airline asked partners to stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on 1,500 of the 4,000 extra daily seats.
BA, which is part of International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (LSE:IAG), holds more than half of the slots at Heathrow and has already cancelled 650 flights for July as part of the government 'amnesty'.
This week it averted potential industrial action by making a “vastly improved pay offer" to employees.