Travel disruption at UK airports
Heavy fog at UK airports over the weekend has had a knock-on affect on flights on Christmas Eve, with a number of flight delays and cancellations.
Heathrow and Gatwick are among the worst affected airports. “Heathrow is subject to a small number of cancellations today as a result of severe weather conditions over the weekend, mainly affecting short-haul flights. Passengers are advised to contact their airline before setting off for their journey to Heathrow,” was the advice this morning on the BAA website.
Flights from Heathrow affected include short-haul flights to Newcastle, Edinburgh, Paris CDG, Geneva, Frankfurt, Milan-Malpensa, Nice, Rome and Vienna, plus the long-haul flight VS045 to New York that was scheduled to depart at 14.00 from Terminal 3 today. British Airways is one of the worst affected airlines. In total Heathrow has said that 30 flights will be grounded on Christmas Eve.
Flights from Gatwick today are not as badly disrupted, although there are delays on flights to Lagos, Sofia and Newark, and flight AEU775 to Lanzarote that was scheduled to take off at 18.10 yesterday is finally expected to depart at 12.00 today.
It is believed that 90 departures and 112 arrivals were cancelled over the weekend. And around 1,000 passengers at Heathrow had to spend the night at an airport hotel or at the airport while they waited for another flight.
In Scotland there was less disruption to flights, with only 25 flights cancelled over the weekend. Only five flights are expected to be cancelled on Christmas Eve at Edinburgh and Glasgow airports.
With milder, wetter weather forecast by the Met Office over the next few days it is hoped that flights from UK airports over the rest of the Christmas and New Year period will return to normal.
Written by: Nick Purdom
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