Fog disruption cost £20 million – 3 Jan 2007

Aviation analysts have estimated the cost of airport distruption before Christmas at £20 million.

British Airways’ domestic passengers bore the brunt of disruption due to severe fog over three days before Christmas, with 1,000 flights cancelled in and out of Heathrow.

The airline would not put a figure on the cost of the disruption, but analysts estimated the bill at £20 million.

The cancellations led to baggage delays which continued through the holiday period.

BA put up to 5,000 passengers in hotels overnight and transferred several thousand more around the UK by road as air traffic control cut Heathrow traffic by half for safety reasons. However, all long-haul flights got away.

BA’s website and phone lines had to deal with four times the expected level of traffic and there was confusion among passengers as to whether they were entitled to compensation.

A BA spokeswoman explained: “Disruption by weather is beyond our control and not subject to compensation rules, but we pride ourselves on our duty of care and offered to rebook or refund people.”

She said compensation for delayed baggage would be handled case by case.

BMI, Lufthansa, Finnair, Alitalia, Iberia and Air France also suffered disruption at Heathrow, and there were cancellations at several other airports, including Gatwick, Southampton, Norwich, Cardiff and Coventry – where TUI UK transfered passengers to nearby Birmingham International.