British Airways today hit out at Heathrow airport for adding to the flight chaos caused by the bomb plot security alert.
The airline's chief executive said it was forced to cancel some flights while others had to leave before passengers could board them.
Willie Walsh blamed the British Airports Authority who run Heathrow for being unable to deal with increased security and baggage checks.
"The airport's baggage system cannot process all of the passengers' bags and where passengers have been able to check their bags in, the lengthy queues in the airport security search area means that passengers are unable to get to the departure gate in time for their flight," he said.
Mr Walsh said BA had to cancel 25 per cent of its shorthaul services today "many" other flights left without all passengers.
Mr Walsh apologised to BA's customers for the disruption caused to their travel plans but said it had been the result of a situation beyond their control.
He said: "We are ready and able to operate a full schedule at London Heathrow. We have sufficient flying crew, ground staff and aircraft in place.
"Our staff are doing a great job given the extremely testing circumstances in which we have found ourselves.
"However BAA is unable to provide a robust security search process and baggage operation at London Heathrow and as a result we are being forced to cancel flights and operate some others from Heathrow without all the passengers onboard."
The airline cancelled 10 longhaul flights today, which were due to fly out of Heathrow to the US.
At Gatwick BA flights continued to be subject to delays but all scheduled shorthaul flights managed to take off.
There were no longhaul cancellations but 10 domestic flights were scrapped. BA was advising all customers to expect delays and to check the status of their flight before leaving home.