British Airways said on Tuesday it might seek compensation from airport operator BAA Plc after stepped-up security checks forced it to cancel 1,100 flights, Reuters reported. "We are giving it serious consideration. We need to look at what the impact has been, and we will be taking that into consideration," a BA spokeswoman said. Airlines cancelled flights for a sixth day as they continued to clear a backlog of hundreds of thousands of stranded passengers and stacks of luggage that missed flights. BA led other carriers in calling for compensation after police last Thursday said they had foiled a plot to bomb airliners between Britain and the United States, prompting the UK to move to its highest level of security. British Airways Chief Executive Willie Walsh told the Daily Mirror newspaper that BAA was ill prepared. "Since 9/11, everyone in the industry has known there might be times when extra security measures needed to be put in place. Yet when the moment struck, BAA had no plan ready to keep Heathrow functioning properly," he said. Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic also expressed frustration with BAA and suggested the government should consider covering part of the bill. "We believe there should be a healthy debate with BAA and the UK government to consider how these costs should be paid for," Virgin said. Top European budget carrier Ryanair also criticised BAA, calling new, smaller hand luggage requirements "nonsensical". UK carrier bmi, second to BA in the number of flights it operates out of London's busy Heathrow airport, said it was also weighing its options. BAA responded to the criticism by saying government security measures imposed last week made disruption inevitable and added that rapid growth by airlines and barriers to expanding Heathrow had overstretched the airport to begin with. "The scale and suddenness of the measures imposed (by the government) last week could not be managed without significant disruption," BAA said, adding the longest queues by Tuesday were not at security, but at check-in counters operated by the airlines. A BAA spokeswoman said a limited number of X-ray and other machines, as well as security training requirements, had hampered its ability to move additional staff into place swiftly. Heathrow sees 67 million passengers a year -- an average of more than 180,000 a day -- and was hard hit by stepped-up security checks that included hand screening of all passengers and a temporary ban on all hand luggage. Analysts said BA could be more than 40 million pounds ($75.53 million) out of pocket as a result of delays and cancellations that affected thousands of its customers. BA said it had not yet determined the cost impact, but it had been forced to book 10,000 hotel rooms and hire lorries to take luggage to passengers in Europe that had not made it onto flights. Planes were also forced to depart with passengers still stranded in airports by stringent security checks. On Tuesday, BA said it would cancel 20 percent of its flights from Heathrow, including 37 short-haul and four long-haul flights. The airline said it would also cancel 11 domestic flights from London airport Gatwick. Britain lowered its security alert on Monday to "Severe" from the highest level, "Critical", and the Department for Transport revoked its ban on all hand luggage, allowing each passenger one small bag about the size of a laptop computer case. Shares in Spain's Ferrovial, which bought BAA earlier this year, slipped 0.16 percent to 61.75 euros in Madrid. BA shares closed down 0.27 percent at 376 pence and easyJet fell 1.03 percent to 409p, lagging London's FTSE 100 index which rose 0.46 percent. Ryanair rose 0.42 percent at 7.18 euros.
