A week after Britain said it had foiled a terrorist plot to blow up US-bound aircraft, the authorities face a backlash against a confusing array of security restrictions that have baffled passengers, upset pilots and drawn legal threats from one airline.
The world’s busiest airports are now mostly free of the grim queues and cancelled flights that afflicted thousands of travellers last weekend, but there is no sign of a change to safety measures that Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, Europe’s biggest low cost airline, on Friday described as “farcical” and “Keystone Cops-like”.
