The United States said today it has intelligence that the al Qaeda network may be targeting five or six US-bound flights from Europe, including three canceled by British Airways today.
"There are a handful of flights we are concerned about and British Airways has canceled about half of them," a US official said.
The US-bound flights in question all originated in Europe, he said. US security officials alerted the airlines and governments involved and it was up to them whether to cancel the flights or step up in-flight security, he said.
After he spoke, Air France canceled two Paris-Washington flights.
In the latest cancellations during a jittery period for the global airline industry since before Christmas, British Airways said it had called off flight BA223 to Washington tomorrow and Monday. Tomorrow's BA 207 flight to Miami was also canceled.
Intelligence information raising fears of a new September 11-style attack led to the cancellation of several international BA flights last month at the request of the US authorities.
"We have received threat reporting that indicates al Qaeda's desire to target these particular flights," the US official said in Washington.