Much of the UK is braced for a fourth day of travel disruption due to snow and ice – and forecasters say little improvement to the weather can be expected this week.
Heathrow has reduced its schedule for Monday by about 10% – cutting around 130 flights – in anticipation of low visibility due to the severe weather.
“It is possible that weather conditions at other European airports will increase the number of cancellations,” the London airport warned.
British Airways said today: “Poor weather in the UK and parts of Europe continues to cause disruption to our flights.
“Like other airlines at Heathrow we have complied with a request to reduce our schedule by 10%. We strongly recommend you check the status of your flight and only go to the airport if your flight is operating.”
Heathrow cancelled 300 flights yesterday as weather conditions also forced temporary closures of Birmingham and Belfast City airports to allow snow to be cleared, and led to more than 40 cancellations at London City Airport.
A number of British Airways flights to Heathrow Terminal 5 were diverted to other UK airports last night after the airline was unable to de-ice aircraft on the ground quickly enough to clear the stands, according to the BBC.
This follows more than 110 flights being cancelled at Heathrow on Saturday and 440 on Friday leaving thousands of passengers sleeping in terminals overnight.
Passengers due to fly from Heathrow today are being urged to check the status of their flight with their airline
Flights to and from Norwich airport were suspended this morning with passengers advised check in as normal but to expect delays.
Disruption is possible to flights from Gatwick, Birmingham, Leeds/Bradford Newcastle and Aberdeen airports, while there was a warning of delays at Luton.
Some domestic flights from Glasgow airport were also likely to be affected today due to the adverse weather.
Stansted flights were operating as normal but five Ryanair flights to Ireland were cancelled and four into Stansted. The airline blamed a “shortage of deicing fluid” at the Essex airport.
EasyJet said: “Airports across the UK are experiencing significant disruption due to wintry weather.” The airline was taking “proactive measures” to minimise the disruption.
Gatwick said it was operating as normal this morning although there may be some delays due to weather disruption across Europe.
Two Eurostar services to Brussels and Paris were cancelled this morning together with three inbound trains from Brussels and one from the French capital.
All trains face delays of up to an hour throughout the day due to speed restrictions being imposed due because of snow and ice in the UK and northern France
Eurostar said: “Passengers with tickets for one of the cancelled services are advised to change their travel plans for another day. However if you have to travel today, please contact a member of staff at your departure station where you will be given a seat on a later service.
“Please note that you may have a long wait for the next available train. All customers due to travel on Monday 21st January may exchange their ticket, regardless of ticket type, to another available service on any available date.”