Hundreds more flights cancelled

Airlines were forced to cancel hundreds more flights as strict anti-terror measures continued at airports.

But airlines reported that they were getting away far more flights than Thursday as passengers helped by arriving without hand luggage.

The low-fare airlines, which carry thousands of people off on summer holidays, were among the worst hit.

EasyJet, which axed around 300 flights on Thursday, cancelled 112 flights and its budget airline rival Ryanair scrapped more than 30 flights to and from Stansted Airport in Essex.

British Airways, which cancelled more than 400 flights on Thursday, was hoping to operate 70% of its short-haul flights in and out of Heathrow Airport, with around 120 flights likely to be cancelled.

EasyJet decided to cancel flights to destinations that passengers could, at least, get to by train. Consequently, the airline scrapped its services from Luton, Stansted and Gatwick to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness and Newcastle as well as to Paris, Amsterdam and Geneva.

Spokesman Toby Nicol said: "We could have been heroic and tried to run a full service and fallen flat on our faces. Instead we have been realistic and scrapped those services to which passengers can get to by train."

He went on: "It's been much better today. Airports have had 24 hours to get used to the new systems and passengers have been very good about arriving without hand luggage."

BA's cancellations included six flights from Heathrow to the US, including three to New York, and one each to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington DC.

A BA spokesman said: "There will still be delays but we are pretty confident of getting the majority of our flights away."