Airlines: U.K. Travel Grinding to Halt

Yahoo Finance & AP ^ | August 12, 2006 | AP

[Flavius]

LONDON (AP) -- Airlines warned the British government Saturday that the country's air travel is "grinding to a halt" because of tough new anti-terror security requirements. One airline asked for police and army reservists to help with screening.

ADVERTISEMENT click here British Airways and Ryanair canceled scores of flights from Britain to Europe and the United States and blamed airport operator BAA for not investing enough in security systems and baggage screening in the aftermath of new terrorism threats.

BAA, which owns Heathrow and Stansted airports, ordered the cancellations because its systems for screening passengers and checked-in baggage for security threats could not cope with the extra required scrutiny of passengers and their luggage in the wake of Thursday's thwarted threat to bomb up to 10 U.S.-bound aircraft.

Budget carrier Ryanair appealed to the British government to use police and army reservists to speed up searches at overloaded airport security checkpoints.

"If the British government is serious about defeating terrorism and not allowing the terrorists to disrupt normal, everyday British life, then it must provide the additional security staffing -- either police or army reserve personnel -- immediately to prevent London's main airports from grinding to a halt over the coming days," said Michael O'Leary, chief executive officer of Ryanair.

Heathrow Airport, the major hub for British Airways, canceled one-third of flights due out Saturday afternoon and night, blaming strict new security regulations. Passengers were delayed so long that many missed their flights.

Saturday night, the airport said it planned to cancel a third of its flights on Sunday, too, because of the current delays.

Ryanair, which operates most of its London services through Stansted Airport, northeast of London, said it had complied with BAA orders to cancel more than 60 flights of its Stansted flights this weekend, about 20 percent of the total, but said this overloaded security situation must be fixed by Monday.

"Ryanair and other major UK airlines cannot keep canceling flights and disrupting the travel plans of tens of thousands of British passengers and visitors solely because the BAA cannot cope with the new body-search requirements," said O'Leary.

[Flavius]

When leaders where leaders

"So much owed by so many to so few"

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."-- Speech made in the House of Commons as the Battle Britain peaked on August 20, 1940. The home front was totally involved in the war because of the Germany bombing raids and Britain was "a whole nation fighting and suffering together." But special gratitude was directed towards the airmen whose prowess and devotion were capable of turning the tide of the war. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. He worked out the phrase in his mind as he visited the Fighter Command airfields in Southern England.

Now:

"So much paid for by so many because of the few"

[Joe Bfstplk]

For a while, all airlines should be leased to deport all mideastern people back to the mideast. Like a cancer, excise this problem from society.

[TomGuy]

Even when major terror plots are foiled, the terrorists still have a negative impact on the economy and on the citizens.

Look at the financial and inconvenience impacts of this latest plot on both the UK and US economies/airline passengers.

Even when foiled, the terrorists can claim a partial win.

[Jeff Chandler]

We need a two-tiered system, one for certified travelers to skate on through, and one for everyone else.

[thoughtomator]

No, we need a two tiered system that says normal people can pass unmolested and Muslims cannot fly at all. Let the people who cause the problem be the ones inconvenienced. If Muslims want the privelege of being allowed to travel by air they can put a stop to the generation of mass murderers by their own communities, or alternatively reject outright their culture of death and renounce Islam.

[sushiman]

It's time to give all Muslims in the U.K. a choice : leave voluntarily within 3 months , or die .