1/3rd of Heathrow flights cancelled

Third of Heathrow flights cancelled

Press Association
Sunday August 13, 2006 8:08 AM

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.

© Copyright Press Association Ltd 2006, All Rights Reserved.