Fog has wrecked the travel plans of thousands of airline passengers to and from London’s airports.
On the busiest day of the week for air travel, London City Airport, in Docklands, is worst affected. Until 9.53am, no flights had landed and at least a dozen arrivals had been cancelled.
An inbound Alitalia flight from Milan diverted to Manchester, 160 miles away.
Luxair flights were diverted to Southend and Luton, while a Flybe service from Belfast City went to Birmingham.
KLM and Lufthansa flights from Amsterdam and Frankfurt respectively turned around in mid-air and returned to their departure airports.
A Flybe flight from Dusseldorf was held for about 20 minutes off the coast of Essex and then returned to the German city. Passengers spent almost three hours on a flight to nowhere.
Eight flights – seven on British Airways, one on Alitalia – managed to take off, but at least 16 departures have been cancelled. Multiple flights to Amsterdam, Dublin, Frankfurt and Luxembourg are affected.
Many other flights to and from London City are delayed.
For Gatwick, Eurocontrol says: “Forecast for EGKK [code for Gatwick] has deteriorated with the rate decreased. High delays.”
The airport is telling passengers: “Fog across the South East of England may cause some delays and cancellations at the airport today.
“We know this is extremely frustrating and our teams are working hard to get you on your way as quickly as possible.
“Please check with your airline for the latest flight information.”
The biggest airline at Gatwick, easyJet, cancelled 10 flights yesterday because of the forecast poor weather.
Passengers from Barcelona, Geneva, Amsterdam, Belfast and Toulouse were told at 4pm on Thursday: “The reason we have to cancel your flight is due to expected poor weather condition in London Gatwick.”
A spokesperson for easyJet said: ““Due to adverse weather at London Gatwick some air traffic control restrictions are in place and easyJet, like other airlines, is currently seeing disruption to some of its flights.
“The safety and welfare of our passengers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority.”
British Airways cancelled round-trips to Amsterdam, Rome and Venice, while Flybe grounded a flight to Newquay and back.
Some flights are heavily delayed for unrelated reasons. A BA flight from Venice is running 13 hours late while Air Transat from Vancouver is seven hours behind schedule.
Gatwick is the world’s busiest single-runway airport.
At Heathrow, 10 British Airways short-haul arrivals and departures have been cancelled, including domestic flights to Glasgow and Newcastle.
A BA spokesperson said: “We’re sorry that some of our customers’ travel plans have been affected due to fog at London’s airports, which has led to a reduction in the number of aircraft which can land each hour.
“For safety reasons Air Traffic Control has to allow greater space between each aircraft in low visibility and this has a knock-on effect onto airlines’ flight schedules.
“We are refunding or rebooking any affected customers onto alternative flights so they can continue their journeys as soon as possible.”
