Frankfurt Airport has joined Schiphol Amsterdam this week in implementing caps on the number of flights to and from the airport. London Heathrow has also instituted a cap on the number of passengers passing through the airport. And more airports could act similarly in the weeks to come as summer holiday air travel has reached frenzy-pitch and flight delays and cancellations are causing airport chaos across Europe.

Frankfurt is reducing the number of aircraft movements (landings and take-offs) to 88 per hour, down from the previous 96. This came into effect on Monday (July 18).

“In recent weeks, we have already cancelled flights in several waves to relieve the overall system,” says Lufthansa CEO, Jens Ritter, welcoming the announcement from Frankfurt.

“Since the already increased capacities of the ground-handling services in Frankfurt are still not sufficient, due to a high sickness absence rate, even for the flight schedule that has already been reduced several times, the decision taken by Fraport today is right,” he added.