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Air travel chaos eases

Passengers at Heathrow faced long delays on Thursday.

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• Gallery: UK airports on alert

• UK foils aircraft terror plot

• UK raises threat level to critical

• BAA outlines security measures

• Status of Britain-to-U.S. flights

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- Air passengers across Europe were continuing to face delays Saturday, but there were fewer cancellations as airports adapted to stringent new security in the wake of disrupted major terrorist plot.

The British Airports Authority (BAA) said airlines were reporting a major improvement over the previous two days with only a handful of flights from major airports scrapped.

Travelers were being advised to check with airlines before setting out for airports.(Airline Web sites)

In an easing of restrictions, airport authorities said passengers would now be allowed to take items purchased after security checks to be taken on board aircraft on some flights.

British Airways said it had cancelled a further 10 short haul round trip flights to and from London Heathrow, adding to 21 cancellations it had announced late Friday.

It blamed the 10 extra cancellations on the problems caused by the ban on hand luggage implemented after the exposure of an alleged plot to smuggle liquid explosives in carry-on bags.

A BA spokesman said: "There will still be delays today but we are pretty confident of getting the majority of our flights away today."

Air France-KLM was advising all passengers traveling to and from the U.S. to arrive at the airport early.

The airline made no indication of plans to cancel flights.

Lufthansa said it was resuming all its flights to and from Heathrow.

The low-fare airlines, which carry thousands of people off on summer holidays, continued to be hit hard.

Ryanair said it had been told to cancel further flights over the weekend, with an expected 20 percent of flights from Stanstead airport being scrapped.

EasyJet however said on its Web site that it was now running its full scheduled service, after being forced to ax hundreds of flights on the previous two days.

CNN's Mallika Kapur, at Heathrow Airport, said there were still major delays for passengers due the security procedures, but a steady stream of flights were able to depart.

On Thursday afternoon British Airways said all short haul flights in and out of Heathrow -- the world's busiest international airport -- had been canceled for the rest of the day and advised passengers who did not need to travel Friday to stay away from the airport.

The UK's threat warning level was raised to "critical" -- meaning "an attack is expected imminently" -- after police said they had arrested 21 people in connection with a terrorist plot to blow up aircraft flying to the U.S. (Full story)

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