As the disruption caused by wintry weather extends into a fourth day, at least 75 flights to and from London’s airports have been cancelled. More than 10,000 passengers are affected.
Airlines including British Airways, Ryanair and Wizz Air are still recovering from the snow and ice chaos that saw hundreds of flights cancelled on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
British Airways has the highest number of cancelled flights on Tuesday, with 30 domestic and European departures to and from London Heathrow grounded.
From London City airport, BA round-trips to Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Zurich were cancelled. Lufthansa also cancelled a round trip from Frankfurt to the Docklands airport –as it did to and from Heathrow.
Ryanair grounded 20 flights to and from its main base, London Stansted, as well as a round-trip from Dublin to London Gatwick.
Palermo and Pescara in Italy, as well as Riga in Latvia, are among the longer-distance flights that have been cancelled.
The Irish airline said: “Due to severe adverse weather across Ireland and the UK, we may be forced to delay and possibly cancel a small number of our over 2,500 flights today. Affected passengers have been notified and advised of their options.
“Our teams are working hard to minimise disruption to customers.”
At Luton, Wizz Air cancelled another dozen arrivals and departures, all to and from eastern Europe – including Chisinau in Moldova and Tirana in Albania.
Travellers whose flights are grounded are protected by European air passengers’ rights rules. They are entitled to be flown to their destination as soon as possible – and must be provided with meals and, if necessary, accommodation, until they are able to travel.
Cash compensation is unlikely to be paid because weather-related cancellations are classed as “extraordinary circumstances”.
According to the flight data specialist Cirium, on Monday one in three flights from Stansted were cancelled; one in four from Glasgow; one in seven from Gatwick; and one in eight from Heathrow.
