Heathrow is stockpiling rubber gloves to make sure its security guards can continue to search passengers in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The London airport, through which about 200,000 passengers pass each day, said some materials for basic security, including gloves and explosive detector swabs, were not produced in the UK and had to be imported from the EU.

Heathrow is also putting aside supplies of spare parts for its hugely complex baggage systems, whose occasional failures have caused mayhem at the airport.

The chief executive, John Holland-Kaye, said he was confident operations would continue after 29 March but that his team was planning for extra pressure on its cargo facilities as essentials were diverted from sea and land freight to air, to circumvent the potential gridlock at Channel ports.

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He said Heathrow was stockpiling for its own operations and those of its suppliers: “The obvious thing you might think of is our baggage system, which has a Dutch supplier, so do we have the spare parts?

“But some of the other things that are more urgent are the rubber gloves that security officers wear when they are searching somebody. They come from the EU and if you don’t have them, you can’t search people.

“The fabric swabs that we use for detection also come from the EU, and there isn’t a UK supplier, so we need to make sure we’ve got a good stockpile of those. We’ve been working on that for some time.”

Despite the preparations for no deal, Holland-Kaye was adamant flights would continue in all circumstances, and said he believed the government had been listening to business and was trying to ensure there would be no blocks on the flow of goods. “How that plays out, it’s too early to say.

“In the last few months we’ve seen a lot of pragmatism from both sides ... that gives people the confidence to buy tickets and that goods will travel.

“The worst-case scenario, people were right to worry about, but the government is now taking steps. People writing policy didn’t understand the nuances ... the concerns were entirely valid, but I expect those issues to be dealt with.”

Speaking at a summit organised with the British Chambers of Commerce to encourage business growth and exports from regional airports via Heathrow, Holland-Kaye told potential suppliers that it would work with them through any Brexit disruption.

He said the airport was pushing ahead with its £14bn third runway scheme despite the uncertainty, and that 13 more potential domestic air routes were being considered for when the airport had expanded.