AIRLINES attacked the inconsistency of the Government’s new security rules yesterday, saying that terrorists could switch their focus to flights coming into Britain, which are not covered by the restrictions on hand luggage and liquids.

The new rules apply only to flights leaving British airports and arrivals from the US. Passengers boarding flights to Britain from anywhere else in the world are not subject to any additional checks and can take large pieces of hand luggage and as much liquid as they can carry.

A terrorist could therefore circumvent the extra security at British airports by catching a train or ferry to France and boarding a flight from Paris to London. There are no extra security checks at Channel ports or the Eurotunnel or Eurostar terminals.

The extra checks will continue to cause cancellations and long delays for at least two more days. British Airways said that it would cancel 46 flights from Heathrow and Gatwick today, six fewer than yesterday. The airline said that it would cancel 18 short-haul flights from Heathrow tomorrow, but that it expected long-haul flights to return to normal.

The special restrictions on flights leaving Britain prompted concerns yesterday that Heathrow could lose its position as the world’s biggest international airport.

JP Morgan, the investment bank, said that other European airports would benefit from the “reputational damage” suffered by Heathrow since last Thursday. Many of the 23 million passengers who change planes at Heathrow would choose to fly via Frankfurt, Paris or Amsterdam to avoid the risk of cancellations and the hand- luggage restrictions.

The British Air Transport Association, which represents 13 airlines including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and bmi, said that the stark differences in security rules in different countries undermined public confidence.

Roger Wiltshire, the association’s secretary-general, said: “We need credible, consistent international standards. Passengers will want to know why they are subject to one security regime on the outbound flight but a very different one on the return.”

The inconsistencies will be discussed today at a meeting of European security ministers in London, attended by John Reid, the Home Secretary.

Security officials from across Europe are expected to meet in Brussels later this week to attempt to draw up a common approach to airport security.Even Britain and the US, which imposed simultaneous bans on hand luggage last week, have different rules on liquids. Britain believes that liquids purchased in shops beyond security checkpoints do not pose any threat. But the US is still banning passengers on flights to and from Britain from taking on board any liquids, even bottles of water bought in the departure lounge.

Ryanair described the Government’s revised rules, which allow passengers to take one small piece of hand luggage, as “nonsensical and ineffective”.

Michael O’Leary, the airline’s chief executive, said: “What security expert decided that a large briefcase was safe as hand luggage but the normal carry-on wheelie bag isn’t? Surely common sense would suggest that if the safety and security of British citizens is under threat, why has the Government not banned luggage, liquids and gels on the London Underground or on Eurotunnel? “We call on the UK Government to return air travel to normal, to eliminate the queues, delays and cancellations at the London airports, which will prove to extremists everywhere that Britain’s airports and airlines will not be disrupted or grounded by their futile attempts to undermine normal life.”

A Department for Transport spokesman said: “We are in contact with international partners, but variations do exist because each country takes an assessment of its own threat. We can’t impose airport security regimes on other countries.” He said that the threat identified by the security services had been to aviation in Britain, but declined to comment on the possibility of terrorists switching to incoming flights.

• The duty-free industry has lost millions of pounds as a result of the stringent measures concerning hand luggage at British airports (David Rose writes).

  Sales at airport stores worldwide have fallen by up to 15 per cent since Thursday’s terrorism alerts. This is mainly owing to a loss of alcohol and perfume sales, which account for 50 per cent of sales in the £14.2 billion industry.

  Heathrow took £475 million in sales last year, and the impact of the disruption has been so far-reaching that shares of beauty companies have fallen. Estée Lauder dipped more than 5 per cent and Elizabeth Arden almost 4 per cent last Friday.

  Retail accounts for 27 per cent of revenues at London airports operated by the British Airports Authority, which is owned by the Spanish construction group Ferrovial.

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