BA leads call for compensation

British Airways said yesterday it might seek compensation from airport operator BAA Plc after stepped-up security checks forced it to cancel 1,100 flights.

"We are giving it serious consideration. We need to look at what the impact has been, and we will be taking that into consideration," a BA spokeswoman said.

Airlines cancelled flights for a sixth day as they continued to clear a backlog of hundreds of thousands of stranded passengers and stacks of luggage that missed flights.

BA led other carriers in calling for compensation after police last Thursday said they had foiled a plot to bomb airliners between Britain and the United States, prompting the UK to move to its highest level of security. British Airways Chief Executive Willie Walsh told the Daily Mirror newspaper that BAA was ill prepared.

"Since 9/11, everyone in the industry has known there might be times when extra security measures needed to be put in place.

Yet when the moment struck, BAA had no plan ready to keep Heathrow functioning properly," he said.

Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic also expressed frustration with BAA and suggested the government should consider covering part of the bill.

"We believe there should be a healthy debate with BAA and the UK government to consider how these costs should be paid for," Virgin said.

Top European budget carrier Ryanair also criticised BAA, calling new, smaller hand luggage requirements "nonsensical".

UK carrier bmi, second to BA in the number of flights it operates out of London's busy Heathrow airport, said it was also weighing its options.

BAA responded to the criticism by saying government security measures imposed last week made disruption inevitable and added that rapid growth by airlines and barriers to expanding Heathrow had overstretched the airport to begin with.