British Airways' boss has criticised BAA's security search processes

As Heathrow flights are cut back to help reduce the congestion, British Airways and Ryanair say the airports should have been better prepared.

Ryanair also blamed the government, saying more police or even troops should have been sent to the airports.

Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander said all was being done to up security.

He praised both the work of the airports and the airlines, adding that the government would have considered any request for increased security personnel at airports, but that no request had yet been received.

'Back to normal'

The complaints from British Airways and Ryanair came after the government also announced that the terror threat to the UK had been downgraded from "critical" to "severe".

During these unprecedented changes to security BAA Heathrow has asked all airlines to adhere to the flight cancellation policy BAA spokeswoman

This means that the ban on taking hand luggage on flights from the UK is being eased.

Mr Alexander said passengers could now take one piece of hand luggage onto planes but would still be banned from taking liquids aboard - except medicines that could be verified and baby food which would have to be tasted by accompanying adults.

A BAA spokeswoman said it was the beginning of the process of getting airports "back to normal".

However, British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh said earlier that BAA was "unable to provide a robust security search process and baggage operation".

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary said that unless UK airports, and particularly those in London, got extra police, or even troops, to help with security checks, ongoing delays were inevitable.

"I think it's something we as an industry and the government need to assess going forward," he said.

Easyjet said it welcomed the downgrading of the security threat rating and had immediately implemented the new rules on all its flights.

Working together

BAA's directive that 20% of flights from Heathrow must be cut on Monday follows an even more swingeing order to thin out the schedules by 30% on Sunday.

The call affects all carriers with four or more flights a day from the airport.

BA said it was cancelling 39 short-haul flights out of 202 from Heathrow on Monday, and five long-haul flights out of 76.

It added that it expected to operate a full European and long-haul schedule from London Gatwick, but some domestic flights from Gatwick would be affected.

Virgin Atlantic criticised the cuts at Heathrow, saying the move favoured airlines like British Airways which could cut less-lucrative short flights and keep most of its long-haul operations running.

By contrast, Virgin Atlantic only operates long haul flights from the UK.

"We pay a fee for an efficient service to be delivered and it's questionable whether that service is being delivered," Virgin spokesman Paul Charles told the BBC.

A spokeswoman for BAA thanked all the airlines for their ongoing cooperation and denied some newspaper reports that it had threatened to ban those carriers that did not agree to the reduction in flights from Heathrow.

"During these unprecedented changes to security BAA Heathrow has asked all airlines to adhere to the flight cancellation policy," she said.

"We appreciate this is going to involve making some difficult decisions and we ask airlines to work together to ensure the airport community operates well together."

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