On the day that a suspected terrorist plot to blow up several aircraft was foiled by British authorities, Hitwise reports that UK holiday makers went on to news and travel sites in droves to find out how anti-terror measures at airports would impact their travel plans.

Visits to BBC News were up 50% as it became the the 9th most visited website in the UK (up from number 14 the previous day), whilst the website for BAA became the 8th most visited Travel website and the 64th most visited site, with its visits up 8 fold.

Websites for the UK`s two biggest airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, also saw a dramatic increase: The gatwickairport website became the 21st most visited Travel site and the heathrowairport website increased more than 200 positions to rank as the 23rd most visited Travel site. Share of visits to Aviation sites increased 79%, with websites for easyJet, Ryanair and British Airways all experiencing rapid growth (48%, 76% and 61% respectively).

However, the share of visits to travel agencies was down 19%, indicating that travellers were contacting airlines directly for updates on delays and cancellations. Stranded air travellers also sought alternative routes out of the UK, with visits to Eurostar`s site up 53%.

Hitwise reveals that visits to news sites were almost on a par with July 7th last year, the day of the London bombings, accounting for 5.26% share of all internet visits and up 18% from the previous day. BBC, Yahoo! Google and MSN News and Sky News were all popular online destinations. With the terror alert now elevated to critical in the UK, websites for MI5 and The Home Office were also popular sources. MI5`s website leapt in the daily rankings from number 254 to number 9 among Government sites and The Home Office site jumped from number 75 to number 10.