Airport and travel News - London Airports

4.2.2009

Snow causes chaos at London Airports

Heavy snow falls in London and the South East this morning has caused severe disruption to flights at a number of airports.Services at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City Airport and Southampton were badly affected, together with road, rail and public transport connections.

Both runways at Heathrow were closed for a period and a Cyprus Airways aircraft slipped off a taxiway at the airport.

Leeds/Bradford airport was also affected although its runway re-opened following snow clearance operations and there were no services on the Gatwick Express.

British Airways cancelled 65 flights and Ryanair 73. More than 20 flights from Gatwick were cancelled and 18 were diverted to other airports. BA cancelled all flights from Heathrow until17.00 today.

Forecasters predicted further snow falls throughout the day following up to six inches of snow overnight and more this morning.

The worse snow conditions in London and South East for 18 years closed many roads and hit bus services in the capital. 

Conditions are unlikely to improve with more snow expected today and tomorrow.