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Direct flights to the U.K. from Yemen were suspended Wednesday, part of a broad drive to improve airport security following the failed Christmas Day attack on an airliner bound for Detroit.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown also said anew "no-fly" list will be created to stop terror suspects aiming to travel to the U.K., while other individuals would be subjected to extra security measures.
The moves recognize the rising threat from militants based in Yemen and affiliated with al Qaeda. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man charged in the Detroit plot, told officials hewas incontact with al Qaeda operatives in Yemen, which Mr. Brown called "both an incubator and potential safe haven for terrorism."
A spokesman for Yemenia, the Yemeni national airline, said the U.K. had askedfor London-bound Yemenia flights to undergo additional security measures in Paris or Cairo. The spokesman didn't elaborate on why the two cities were selected.
"They wanted planes to be emptied and searched [and] passengers and luggage to go through security checks," he said. Those demands were unacceptable andthe airline had decided to suspend flights, he said.
A spokesman for the U.K. Department of Transport declined to comment.
Mr. Brown -- speaking in the House of Commons after meeting with military, intelligence and border-security chiefs -- said the U.K. was working closely with the Yemeni government to agree on "what security measures need to be put in place before flights are resumed." U.K. officials are currently in the Yemeni capital San'a to help improve aviation security, a spokesman said.
The prime minister said the government was introducing a new "no-fly list" of terror suspects barred from entering the U.K. That would be complemented by a larger list of suspect individuals who would be subject to special measures, including expanded screening, before boarding flights bound for the U.K.
He also said that by year-end, the U.K. would be able to check all people planning to travel to the U.K. from other countries, including transit passengers, against a Home Office watch list a day before they travel.
Western governments are scrambling to tighten security since theChristmas Day plot, which President Barack Obama said had exposed a "systemic failure" in sharing and acting upon intelligence about terror suspects.
Mr. Brown also reiterated that new body scanners would be introduced in U.K. airports starting next week, and promised an increase in testing for traces of explosives.
