Grounded again

8216;8216;There are a handful of flights we are concerned about and BA has cancelled about half of them,8217;8217; an official said. 8216;8216;We have received threat reporting that indicates Al Qaeda8217;s desire to target these particular flights.8217;8217; The cancelled BA flights are BA-223 from London to Washington on Sunday and Monday, and BA-207 to Miami on Sunday. 8216;8216;We cancelled these flights on advice from the UK government for security reasons,8217;8217; a spokeswoman said. Air France said it had cancelled two flights from Paris to Washington.

8216;8216;We confirm that for reasons of safety, we have cancelled flight number 026 to Washington on February 1 and the same flight on February 2,8217;8217; a spokeswoman said.

Saturday8217;s cancellations came after Britain warned travellers they faced years of security alerts amid Western intelligence fears of plots by Al Qaeda and other extremist groups.

8216;8216;There8217;s been a lot of strategic intelligence pointing to an interest in using an aeroplane in an attack,8217;8217; Kevin Rosser, an analyst with Control Risks Group, said.

8216;8216;The security services are likely to have been seeing electronic intercepts pointing them in that direction, which probably led to the latest cancellations,8217;8217; Rosser said.

A British Department of Transport spokesman gave little clue as to what lay behind Saturday8217;s decision, but confirmed it was made in the 8216;8216;light of information received8217;8217;.

Adding to the jitters was a scare on a Virgin Atlantic flight from London to New York that had to be turned back on Saturday when a burning smell was detected in the cabin.

The British airline said it had probably been due to a technical fault. The plane returned safely to Heathrow.