Britain's major airports were expected to be operating an almost normal service today after airline staff spent the weekend battling a backlog of passengers stranded following Tuesday's terrorist attacks in America.

At Heathrow, passengers queued outside terminals just to join check-in lines but the airport expects to return to its usual schedule by tomorrow.

Gatwick saw around 10,500 travellers fly off to the US yesterday and also estimated the situation would be back to normal in the next few days.

New security measures which have banned passengers from carrying sharp objects in their hand luggage also added to delays.

British Airways increased its schedule today to 31 services to the US and continued to operate four daily flights to Canada.

This represented 100% of the airline's normal schedule from Gatwick and only six services from Heathrow remain suspended. These would be introduced during the week and BA hoped to have its full schedule to the US back in place by Sunday.

Virgin Atlantic has been operating a full schedule for the past two days and said priority was being given to passengers with compassionate reasons for travelling.

The situation was also helped yesterday by the removal of restrictions that stopped aircraft flying over London airspace.

Gatwick and Heathrow reiterated passengers should not carry sharp objects, including nail scissors, razor blades and even knitting needles, amongst their hand luggage and should allocate extra time for checking-in.

BA flights to Islamabad remain suspended until further notice.

• A definitive list of items now banned from aircraft cabins has been released and passengers are urged to comply with the new requirements.

The list includes:
• Replica guns (plastic or metal)
• Household cutlery
• Knives with blades of any length
• Letter openers
• Razor blades
• Tradesmen's tools
• Darts
• Scissors
• Knitting needles
• Sports goods such as rackets, cricket bats and golf clubs.