The company that operates Britain's airports should have had a stronger plan to deal with the fallout from terrorist threats such as that thwarted in London last week, a senior industry official said Wednesday.
The British Airport Authority has been criticized by carriers, including British Airways PLC, for being ill-prepared for the emergency that led to hundreds of canceled or delayed flights after authorities imposed strict counterterrorism measures.
"In the case of BAA, the airports must have a stronger contingency plan and be more proactive in handling the emergency," International Air Transport Association (IATA) chief executive Giovanni Bisignani said Wednesday at a conference in Sydney.
He indicated other airports also were not ready for such threats.
"This is another wake-up call for airports," he said.
Bisignani said the BAA should have requested military help to ensure smooth passenger flows after the security scare, which crippled airport operations Thursday at Heathrow and other British airports as strict security measures were quickly imposed.
Mark Mann, a spokesman for BAA, said criticism that the airports operator was not prepared for the emergency was "wide of the mark or ill informed."
Mann said BAA would have had to bring in 50 percent more staff overnight for Heathrow Airport to keep running at full capacity on Thursday when unprecedented security measures were imposed by the government.
"Our robust contingency plans saw seven out of 10 flights departing with two-hour delays 48 hours after the alert, and we are now back to normal," Mann said. "That's a good operation by anyone's standard."
Bisignani was critical of the handling of the delays, but praised the upgraded security measures put in place since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States for helping to foil the plot.
"Passengers can be reassured that this is a secure environment," he said. "Since September 11 measures have been dramatically increased."
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