GLASGOW Airport's main terminal was back in action yesterday, almost exactly 24 hours after the attack.

However, thousands of people displaced from Saturday's flights and those scheduled to fly yesterday were forced to queue in the open for a mile along the road behind the main car park. On the road beside them, buggy-drawn baggage trains ferried luggage back and forth.

For all the discomfort over the hours following the terror attempt, their main preoccupation was getting information about their flights.

On a normal day, they would have had the ubiquitous television screens giving arrival and departure times.

Now a more primitive technology - pen, paper and shoe leather - prevailed. Runners in fluorescent waistcoats passed up and down the line, directing travellers to the head of the queue if their flight was boarding.

There, they were escorted across the police lines, through the car park and then, for most of the day, to Terminal 2 and their flight. Anyone rash enough to walk down St Andrew's Drive with a clipboard was liable to find themselves under siege. By 3pm, though, Terminal 1 was also back in action.

Gordon Dewar, the airport's managing director, said that staff had worked through the night to get the airport back up and running, and get passengers to their destinations as quickly and safely as possible.

In the event, 47 flights left the airport yesterday, with between 15 and 20 cancellations and a further five flights diverted to Edinburgh, Prestwick and Newcastle airports.

Mr Dewar said: "With the support of police, our airline partners and BAA staff, we have been able to reopen the main terminal building within 24 hours of yesterday's attack.

"I want to pay tribute to the tremendous courage and dedication shown by staff across the airport, and to our passengers who have acted superbly throughout this difficult situation."

This weekend, following the start of the school holidays, is normally one of the airport's busiest, possibly eclipsed only by Glasgow Fair. More than 70,000 passengers would normally have passed through over the past two days.

Mr Dewar said: "I think our recovery plan worked and I think our emergency response was very effective.

"We have a workforce out there who have come in from maternity leave, cut short their weekends off, to come in.

"There were a lot of cancellations and we will have to work very hard with the airlines to get people to their destinations. Our aim is that Monday will be business as usual, as if this had never happened.

"There will be some parking available. There will be no change in our procedures."

Among those whose travel plans were thrown into confusion were John Brown, 45, from the Glasgow area, who was on an aircraft with his family - wife Yvonne, 37, and children Euan, two, and Kirstin, five - and ready to take off when the attack happened.

"It never took off," he said. "We were on board for three hours, then we got taken off and walked over to the fire station. We were bussed to gate 19 where we were held with no food or drink until 1.30am. From there, we were bussed to the SECC and then went home.

"We were going to Palma with a BA flight which had been chartered. It was a nightmare trying to get through to them. The only staff looking after us were the pilots and cabin crew on the plane."

Delma Wilton was in the terminal building waiting for a flight to Canada, where she is to be a judge at the Canadian National Highland Dancing Championships. With her was her son David, 18, who plays the bagpipes at the event in St John's, Newfoundland.

"I could not believe how quickly the place filled with smoke," she said. "At first we didn't think it was anything serious. Everyone was laughing and staying quite calm, but the staff telling us to get out started to sound quite anxious.

"As we were getting out, some of the kids started screaming - one young girl was quite hysterical - but others just kept on playing with their toys."

The Wiltons and others on their flight were kept in Gate 29, where they were given sandwiches, chips, and drinks, then a bus took them to the SECC at 3am, where they were fed and given somewhere to sleep.

Passengers spoke highly of the reception they got from the social work department and the Salvation Army at the SECC.