London's Heathrow airport cancelled 10 percent of flights on Monday, a day after it cut its capacity by a fifth, and said services could face further delays with more snowfall expected.
Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, said it had cut around 130 flights – most operated by IAG‘s British Airways – from its schedule on Monday to allow more space between aircraft because of low visibility.
According to Reuters, the airport scrapped some 250 flights on Sunday and said the decision had helped it operate smoothly. Further light snowfalls are forecast through Monday and Tuesday, national weather service the Met Office said.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “The airfield at Heathrow is fully operational with all runways, taxiways and stands clear.
The schedule for today has been reduced by 10% in order to cope with the low visibility conditions expected from 1600 this afternoon. Low visibility means that, for safety reasons, there needs to be a bigger gap between aircraft. Because Heathrow runs at almost 100% capacity there is no slack in the system and flights unfortunately have to be cancelled. Further cancellations are inevitable given the adverse weather conditions at other airports around Europe.
We ask that all passengers please check the status of their flight with their airline before they leave for the airport.
We have over 200 additional customer services staff at Heathrow today to assist passengers as they come through the airport.”
London’s second airport, Gatwick, said it was operating as normal on Monday morning but that delays and some flight cancellations were likely because of adverse weather across Europe.
Smaller Stansted airport said that it was open and operational but that it expected to see some Ryanair flights cancelled during the day.
East Midlands Airport, in central England, said its single runway would remain closed until later on Monday, while City Airport -close to London’s financial district- re-opened its one runway after closing it earlier in the morning.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
