Heathrow wants passengers to stay away

London's Heathrow Airport - one of the busiest in the world - has an unusual message for travellers: Stay away.

Heathrow has told airlines to stop selling tickets for the remainder of summer and has plans to limit passenger numbers to a maximum 100,000 a day.

It is the airport’s latest desperate move to limit ludicrously long queues, baggage delays and flight cancellations, Travel Mole reports.

“Some airlines have taken significant action, but others have not, and we believe that further action is needed now to ensure passengers have a reliable journey,” CEO John Holland-Kaye said.

“We have therefore made the difficult decision to introduce a capacity cap to September 11.

“We recognise that this will mean some summer journeys will either be moved to another day, another airport or be cancelled and we apologise.”

Heathrow said the move potentially affects up to 4,000 passengers a day.

“There are some critical functions in the airport which are still significantly under-resourced, in particular ground handlers,” Holland-Kaye said.

Sounds like he should look for another job.

And sadly for Mr Holland-Kaye not all the airlines are willing to play ball. Emirates is one airline that has said it is not willing to cut its slots.

Emirates has rejected Heathrow’s demands for airlines to stop selling summer tickets, calling the move "unreasonable and unacceptable".

The airline accused the airport of having a "blatant disregard" for customers. Sounds about right.