British Airways restricts hand luggage

Accra, Aug. 11, GNA -- British Airways on Friday told passengers that they could not carry hand luggage on board any aircraft departing any airport in the United Kingdom.

A press release issued by the Customer Service of British Airways in Accra said this followed instructions from the UK Government. The release said only essential items could be carried through the airports' security check-in.

It said items that could be carried as pocket size wallets and purses, prescribed medicines, spectacles and sunglasses without cases and other essential items.

'Every other item must be held in the customers' hold luggage.'

It said no electrical or battery-powered items such as mobile phones and laptop computers could be carried in the cabin adding that these must be checked in as hold baggage.

The release said customers of British Airways should check in as normal though delays were expected at all UK airports.

Tens of thousands of travellers were stranded or left to wait in crowded airports in the UK on Thursday as heightened security sparked by an alleged plot to blow up US-bound planes from Britain wreaked havoc in the international air traffic network.

Many airlines cancelled flights to Britain and the epicentre of the alleged threat, London Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport. Some airlines resumed services Thursday evening after the British Airports Authority (BAA) and air traffic control authorities lifted earlier restrictions on short-haul flights to and from Heathrow.