In an e-mail seen by this newspaper, Tony Douglas, chief executive of the airport, threatened to deny facilities to any airline that ignored his instructions.

The Government downgraded the level of the terrorism threat facing Britain from “critical” to “severe” early this morning, and the stringent security measures imposed after last week’s foiled bomb plot were eased, but hundreds of thousands of travellers still face the misery of long delays.

British Airways said that it was awaiting further advice from the Department for Transport but was complying with a directive by BAA, the airports authority, to cancel 20 per cent of its short-haul operation today in addition to cancelling all 26 of its domestic flights from Gatwick. The airline, which cut 30 per cent of its Heathrow flights yesterday, has now lost about 900 of the 2,900 flights that it was due to fly in and out of London’s two largest airports over the past four days. About 200,000 passengers use Heathrow each day in August.

The e-mail, sent to airlines at 8pm on Saturday, instructed all carriers with three or more flights scheduled for yesterday to provide a revised schedule “demonstrating and documenting a 30 per cent reduction in departing passenger flights”.

It concluded: “Any airline not complying with this Chief Executive Officer instruction by attempting to operate into or out of Heathrow will be considered to be in breach of the Conditions of Use for Heathrow airport and the use of airport facilities will be denied.”

Airline sources said that the e-mail had triggered a furious response from Heathrow’s main carriers, who have accused BAA, which runs the airport, of failing to have adequate contingency plans in place to deal with the emergency.

“We are ready and able to operate a full schedule at London Heathrow,” Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways, said. “However, BAA is unable to provide a robust security search process and baggage operation at London Heathrow and we are being forced to cancel flights and operate others from Heathrow without all the passengers on board.”

The chaos that has engulfed British airports, and Heathrow in particular, showed the first signs of easing overnight after a meeting between John Reid, the Home Secretary, and Douglas Alexander, the Transport Secretary, to discuss airport security.

The Department of Transport released a statement which said that passengers would now be allowed to carry one item of hand luggage on to flights. It continued: “Other bags, such as handbags, may be carried within the single item of cabin baggage. All items carried by passengers will be X-ray screened.”

The restrictions on the carrying of liquid items remained and travellers were urged to contact airlines or tour operators for the latest information, but a spokesman said that, with the easing of security restrictions, “there is bound to be a positive, knock-on effect in congestion on the check-in process that has been going on.”

A Whitehall source had earlier admitted that a relaxation of the rules banning almost all hand luggage — which have caused passengers so much anguish — was inevitable. However, there was “no question” of returning to the situation in operation before last Thursday.

Yesterday was another day of airport misery, with passengers stranded in the rain outside terminal buildings because tents erected as makeshift holding pens were full. Michael O’Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, accused airport security officers of treating travellers “like terrorists”. He said: “I came through Gatwick this morning. Most of the people in queues were families travelling with young children or with elderly parents.

“These are not a terrorist threat, these are not extremists. We have to have sensible security. We have got to return air transport and the London airports to normal.”

Mike Carrivick, chief executive of the Board of Airline Representatives in the UK, which has 91 carrier members operating in Britain, said: “Heightened security levels are not unknown and there should be contingency plans in place. BAA should take responsibility. They need to get more people in to conduct searches.”

Last night, Mr Douglas said: “This is the busiest international airport in the world at the busiest time of year. To suggest we could continue as if nothing had happened is frankly ludicrous.” He dismissed claims that BAA had failed to provide enough manpower to deal with the emergency: “To have [sufficient] additional capacity, we would have needed Terminal 5 to be open and 50 per cent extra staff sat around waiting for something like this to happen.”

BAA has 4,000 security staff. A spokesman said that hand-searching every passenger had increased their workload by 400 per cent. “We have had to take the action we deemed necessary for the efficient operation of the airport,” he added.

“It is inevitable that this is going to cause problems. We are talking about a contractual adjustment with the airlines . . . the cuts allowed us to produce a manageable operation.”

THE LEAKED MEMO IN FULL

“As a result of the increased security requirements placed on Heathrow airport by the Department for Transport, and to ensure that the airport is able to operate effectively, all airlines with three (3) or more flights scheduled to operate on Sunday 13th August 2006 are required to file a revised schedule of aircraft operations for that day demonstrating and documenting a 30 per cent reduction in departing passenger flights.

Aircraft should be departed from Heathrow on schedule or as close to schedule as possible where they are not due to overnight at Heathrow to avoid congestion.

Any airline not complying with this Chief Executive Officer instruction by attempting to operate into or out of Heathrow will be considered to be in breach of the Conditions of Use for Heathrow airport and the use of airport facilities will be denied.”

TONY DOUGLAS
Chief Executive Officer
Heathrow Airport

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