Air travellers face more delays

Passengers were warned they face further disruption at airports around the country, although the problems should not be as severe as Thursday, an airport chief said.

"It is going to be another difficult day, both for airports and for passengers, but there is cause for optimism that we will get more flights off," said BAA chief executive Stephen Nelson.

"There will be queues, there will be cancellations, but we are making progress," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

He said it was unclear how long the current security restrictions would have to remain in place.

"Clearly, these restrictions have been imposed as part of the critical threat procedures imposed by the Government and none of us can actually determine how long that will go on for," he said.

At London's Heathrow airport, British Airways was operating a filter system at the London Airport Terminal 1 asking passengers to wait outside the building in a large marquee until they were called to check in.

Refreshments were available whilst they waited and as a result, although queues within the departure hall were long, the overcrowding of Thursday morning was not repeated.

For the most part passengers carried only suitcases and many came prepared with plastic zip-locked bags in which to put their essential documents once they checked in.

Some families were finding the rule against hand baggage meant that their hold luggage was a great deal heavier.

A member of staff from British Airways said that although he could not predict how long people would be delayed flights had already taken off as normal.