JEDDAH, 13 February 2004 — British Airways has canceled next Monday’s flight from London to Riyadh, for “security reasons.” The airline has also canceled Sunday’s flight 223 from Heathrow to Washington’s Dulles Airport.
The airline said that it had done so on “government advice”. It said that the 184 people booked on the Washington flight and the 149 to Riyadh would be re-booked on other flights or given a refund. The airline would no elaborate as to why those particular flights were canceled.
“We are aware of the disruption these cancellations cause to our customers and we would like to keep that to a minimum” Chris Phipps, BA’s commercial manager in the Kingdom, told Arab News.
“That is why we have agreed that the return flight from Riyadh to London Heathrow flight BA262 on Monday Feb. 16 will operate as scheduled.”
BA officials in Britain have refused to say what intelligence information prompted them to advise cancellation of the flights. However, US authorities have in the past spoken of a “specific and credible” terrorist threat to international flights.
It is reported that US intelligence sources believe that terrorists are targeting particular flight numbers.
BA’s Riyadh flight 263 was canceled on Dec. 31 and Jan. 3 because of security fears and delayed on other occasions. Flight 223 to Washington has also been previously affected. It was canceled on Feb. 1 and delayed several other times because of security alerts.
On New Year’s Eve, the flight was escorted to Washington by US military aircraft and then was held on the tarmac while FBI and security officials questioned passengers, citing intelligence warnings about the flight and the presence of passengers whose names matched a terrorist watch list.
British airline pilots have urged the UK government to examine such intelligence.
Last August, BA suspended all flights to Saudi Arabia because of British government warnings of “a continuing threat of terrorism” after the Saudi authorities uncovered a cell that reportedly was plotting an attack on a British plane. Flights were resumed in September.
