Third of Heathrow flights cancelled

13 April 2012

A third of flights due to leave the world's busiest airport have been cancelled despite a plea by the airlines for measures to alleviate the problems caused by new anti-terror measures.

The move follows a row between the airport's operator, British Airports Authority (BAA), and airlines over who is to blame for the continuing delays and cancellations in the wake of the chaos caused by Thursday's bomb plot security alert.

BA chief executive Willie Walsh accused BAA of being unable to deal with increased security and baggage checks and Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary claimed the passenger disruption was "solely" due to this. But BAA's chief executive officer for Heathrow, Tony Douglas, blamed the measures themselves, saying they were "not sustainable".

Other airlines had some sympathy for BAA. Paul Charles, director of communications at Virgin Atlantic, said it was "supportive of BAA because they are having to do a very difficult job in extreme circumstances".

Likewise, low-cost airline easyJet praised BAA, saying its services were back to business with no "unusual delays" or cancellations yesterday.

Meanwhile, budget airline Ryanair called for urgent government action to reduce the passenger backlog at London's airports or risk them grinding to a halt.

The airline's chief executive said Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted could not cope with the new security measures which require all passengers to undergo a body search and called on the Government to provide extra staff to help ease the pressure.

BAA said up to a third of all flights due to leave Heathrow on Sunday had been cancelled. The airline operator said the remaining flights were expected to depart from the airport on time or with as little delay as possible.

A BA spokeswoman said it had cancelled 30% of its flights in and out of Heathrow. She added that all 23 domestic flights to and from Gatwick had been cancelled, excluding flights to Jersey.

A Department for Transport spokeswoman they had not received any direct request for extra security staff from either BAA or Ryanair.

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