Alistair Darling has suggested that there may be many more years of flight delays because of terror risks.

The transport secretary said "extreme cases" of cancellations would continue, but stressed that the vast majority of flights would be unaffected.

His comments followed the scrapping of some British Airways flights to Washington and Saudi Arabia last week due to security fears.

He confirmed that the cancellations, made by the airline on the advice of the government, were in response to specific intelligence.

"What I can say is that I fear that for many years to come, we are going to be living in an age where there is going to be a heightened state of alert," he told the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme.