I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but I do find it strange that this new type of threat comes days after the BA chief complained about overly-strict US security measures.
This response says, "See, we do need them! And we probably should add a few more measures too!"
It seems like you are one for conspiracy theories to try to make that work.
The British airport guy complained about shoe checks and laptop scans. This threat was about cargo shipped bombs. They are two entirely different things with an minuscule Venn overlap ("having something to do with some sort of transportation device...").
The "cargo shipped terrorism" was all the focus during the anthrax worries. It isn't new.
This response says, "See, we do need them! And we probably should add a few more measures too!"