Christmas chaos – third day of flight disruption

Thick fog is still causing severe disruption to British Airways and other flights for a third day.

The airline planned to cancel at least 170 Heathrow flights today including all domestic services, representing 40% of its short haul flying schedule.

Hundreds of passengers were left sleeping overnight at the airport. Around 200,000 are due to be flying from Heathrow today but an estimated 40,000 will find their flights disrupted.  

A BA statement last night said: “As a result of the severe fog which is forecast to last for another 48 hours, BA will be operating a much reduced short haul flying schedule on Friday, December 22.”

The carrier is running coach services from Heathrow to Newcastle, Manchester, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh and transported more than 3,000 passengers by road on Wednesday and Thursday.

A total of 350 flights at Heathrow were cancelled yesterday and airport operator BAA’s website crashed during the morning due to the weight of enquiries. About 180 BA flights were cancelled out of a normal total of 400 shorthaul services on top of 223 cancellations across all airlines on Wednesday. Services to and from mainland Europe were also badly disrupted.

BA warned of the likelihood of continuing disruption until the fog lifts. 

Passengers have been advised to check the status of their flight before leaving for the airport. Those on domestic flights have been advised not to go to Heathrow.

But thousands have had their Christmas travel plans ruined due to the poor weather conditions across many parts of the UK. Other airports affected today include London City Airport, Southampton, Cardiff and Norwich.

BA said air traffic control had placed restrictions on the numbers of flights allowed to take off and land at Heathrow due to the dense fog. Passengers due to fly on any cancelled flight are being able to re-book, re-route their ticket, subject to availability, or claim a full refund, BA said.

Bmi, Alitalia and Lufthansa also had flights affected.

BA ground operations director Geoff Want said: “We would like to continue to apologise to all customers who have been disrupted as a result of the continuous dense fog, which is unprecedented in recent times.

“The weather across much of the UK is regrettably showing little sign of improvement for Friday and therefore we have no option but to make some more cancellations.

“Faced with the likelihood of continuing fog we are urging our customers due to travel over the weekend on domestic services to and from Heathrow to begin thinking about alternative ways of travelling wherever possible in case the current weather persists.

“We will keep updating our website www.ba.com with the very latest flight information.”

A BAA statement said: “Our airports are experiencing disruption due to the dense and, in some places, freezing fog which is set to continue over the coming days.  

“Passengers intending to fly in the next few days are strongly advised to check with their airlines on the status of their flight before departing for the airport.” 

Report by Phil Davies