Airports across the UK were thrown into chaos after the government imposed immediate hand luggage restrictions and extra security checks in the wake of Thursday’s major anti-terrorist operation.

The ban on all but essential hand luggage caused long delays at London Heathrow and other leading UK airports, prompting hundreds of flight cancellations by European airlines.

British Airways said it had cancelled all short-haul flights to and from Heathrow Airport for the whole of the day. It added that some flights to and from Gatwick would be cancelled and that long-haul flights would be subject to delay.

The Department for Transport advised passengers to stay at home unless their journeys were essential.

BAA said it had asked airlines to temporarily halt all in-bound flights from Europe. The airport operator later lifted restrictions and warned of severe delays.

Lufthansa, Iberia and Olympic cancelled flights to the UK, and there were no flights from Brussels to London. Air France grounded all flights from Paris to Heathrow until congestion problems eased.

Easyjet, the low cost-airline, cancelled all flights from London Gatwick, Luton and London Stansted. Ryanair cancelled more than 100 flights.

There was a high police presence at major airports, as long queues grew to get into the busiest terminals, particularly Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted.

The British hand luggage restrictions meant passengers could carry nothing in their pockets and were allowed only a plastic carrier bag, preferably transparent.

The only items allowed in carrier bags were wallets, purses, travel documents, prescription medicines and medical items, spectacles and sunglasses without cases, contact lens holders without bottles of solution, baby food and milk, female sanitary items, tissues and keys.

At the check-in desks passengers were having to empty all other items in to bin bags.

The US government banned all liquids and gels from flights, including toothpaste, make-up, and suntan lotion. Baby formula and medicines were exempted.

The UK’s Federation of Tour Operators said the situation was improving in the afternoon, with 50,000 passengers on chartered flights getting away, and the same number returning to the UK, after dealys of around 2 to 3 hours.

”People’s holidays are not being disrupted by cancellation,” said Graham Lancaster of the FTO, “delays are of the level with air traffic control delays and disputes.”

Passengers at Heathrow struggled to make alternative arrangements following the restrictions on hand luggage. John Coward of the Excess Baggage Company said his shop had been inundated with extra business as passengers snapped up bags and locks.

In spite of the chaos most passengers were good natured but one woman catching a European-bound flight said: “I can’t see it being a danger on a flight to Spain.”

However, Iqbal Hasan, a passenger waiting for a connecting flight to Calcutta, said he was “completely exasperated” at the restrictions.

Passengers flying to the US were facing a secondary search at the boarding gate. In US airports, hand luggage was banned on all flights to the UK but there was not the chaos and severe delays seen in UK airports.

A businessman travelling to the the US, who declined to be named, said: “I’m a bit frightened, but I’m going anyway because I have to.”

Passengers on a flight from Seattle said they were “told nothing until they had landed” but after a two-hour wait on the runway passed through customs and security “very smoothly”.

Anna Budisin, an American woman travelling from Chicago to Belgrade, was told to give up waiting for her connecting flight and book into a hotel. “I’m just exhausted, all I want to do is go to sleep,” she said.

“These additional security measures will make travel more difficult for passengers, particularly at such a busy time of the year. But they are necessary and will continue to keep flights from UK airports properly secure,” the department for transport said.

BMI said they were trying to stop families and friends entering the airport with passengers and were recommending passengers rebook their flights.

A BMI representative said: “Many business travellers have just turned around and gone home because they take one look at these queues and know that they’re not going anywhere. But we have had trouble with people returning home to long haul destinations because they haven’t got anywhere else to stay if they are delayed.’’

Other transport operators stepped up measures to take on extra passengers. Eurostar, the cross-Channel rail service, said it had seen an extra 2,300 bookings - on top of the roughly 22,500 passengers it had expected to handle for the day in and out of London Waterloo - by 11am and expected further bookings during the day.

It had brought in extra staff to cope with the increased demand and was examining the possibility of adding extra trains on top of the already-scheduled 16 each way daily between London and Paris and 10 each way between London and Brussels.

The operator said passengers were being asked to check in as normal and said the high level of security normally in place was still being applied, with all baggage checked by x-ray on the way into terminals.

“It’s going to be a little busier today because we have extra travellers travelling with us,” the operator said. “But we have the extra staff in place to help to manage that demand.”

National Express the coach company, said it was operating services as normal to UK airports, but delays were “inevitable”, and Virgin Trains was accepting passengers with airline tickets between Manchester and London on Thursday.