'UK airports should not kowtow to US,' says BA chairman

The chairman of British Airways has attacked the "completely redundant" checks commonplace at British airports and said the UK should stop "kowtowing" to demands for increased security from the US.

Martin Broughton said there was no need to "kowtow to the Americans every time they wanted something done" with regard to security on US-bound flights, especially when this involved security checks on a level the US does not impose on its own domestic flights.

Speaking at the annual conference of the UK Airport Operators Association in London, Mr Broughton said: "America does not do internally a lot of the things they demand that we do. We shouldn't stand for that."