Heavy snow grounded planes at Manchester Airport this morning with passengers left stranded waiting for their flights to take off. Both runways had to be closed due to the adverse weather conditions causing disruption to dozens of flights.
The airport has now confirmed that one runway has since reopened, but passengers are being urged to check with airlines ahead of travelling for any changes to their schedule.
A number of passengers ended up stuck on grounded flights at the airport, with some posting videos from the plane on social media. On Twitter, @paulpanyan posted a clip of a plane wing covered in snow. "It’s still melting. Still nothing is happening," he said. "3.5 hours in and still not moved. Nice one Manchester Airport. so happy I got up at 3am for this."
Another user, @stunic, posted a video of a lone snow plough clearing one of the runways, while @MrsBobsy said she was "currently stuck on a grounded plane, watching snow ploughs go up and down".
Forecasters have warned that severe conditions are likely to continue over the weekend. A yellow weather warning for ice and snow covering Greater Manchester is currently in place until midday tomorrow.
Police are also warning motorists in the region to take care while driving after officers were called out to road traffic collisions on several major roads. The Met Office said the treacherous conditions could lead to more travel disruption in the coming days.
Here's everything you need to know about the disruption at Manchester Airport and what to do if you're due to travel this weekend.
Are the runways open?
Earlier today, the airport confirmed that both runways had to be closed on Saturday morning. In a statement, a spokesperson said: “Due to heavy snow fall, we have temporary closed both runways. Health and safety will always be our top priority and operations will resume at the earliest opportunity.”
At around 11.30am, a spokesperson confirmed to the Manchester Evening News that one runway was back open. It is not yet known when the second runway will reopen.
In a tweet, the airport said: "Operations have resumed from one of our runways since 11:30am. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. Passengers are advised to contact their airline for the most up-to-date flight information."
How many flights are affected?
Easyjet has confirmed that it has had to cancel 16 flights at Manchester Airport today.
An airport spokesperson confirmed shortly after 11am that eight outbound planes had been cancelled at Manchester Airport so far. A further 17 inbound planes had to be diverted, while four inbound flights had also been cancelled, the airport said.
These numbers are expected to rise and passengers are being urged to check the latest information on arrivals and departures with the relevant airlines.
Easyjet and AerLingus are among the airlines that have cancelled flights from Manchester Airport today. According to the latest flight information on the airport website, at least four Ryanair flights and six Easyjet flights due to land at the airport have been cancelled. In addition, a number of flights landing today are due at the airport later than scheduled.
What is the advice for people flying today?
Manchester Airport is advising all passengers to check the latest flight information directly with airlines. The latest information on departures and arrivals at Manchester Airport can be found on their website here.
Easyjet issued a statement advising passengers that if their flight is cancelled they will be offered a transfer free of charge. A spokesperson said: “Like other airlines easyJet is experiencing some disruption to its flying programme to and from Manchester as a result of the closure of the runway due to snow earlier today. Although the airport has now reopened, it meant some flights were delayed departing and due to the knock on effects of the closure unfortunately we have had to cancel 16 flights."
The statement added: “We are doing everything possible to minimise the disruption for our customers including providing hotel rooms and meals for those passengers affected by the cancellations. Customers on cancelled flights have been provided the option of transferring their flight free of charge or obtaining a refund."
In a message to anyone due to fly today, the airline said: “We would advise that all passengers due to fly with us to or from Manchester today to check the status of their flights on Flight Tracker for real-time information. The safety of our passengers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority. Whilst this situation is outside of our control we would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused as a result of the weather.”
Ryanair posted a statement to passengers on Twitter. It said: "Due to snowy weather conditions in the UK, we are experiencing a small number of delays to our flights from Liverpool and Manchester Airports today (10 Dec). While our teams are working hard to minimise disruption to customers, Ryanair advises all customers flying from the UK today (10 Dec) to check the Ryanair website/app for flight status updates before travelling to the airport."
It added: "We sincerely apologise for these weather-related delays which are entirely beyond our control."
Is there more snow forecast?
According to the Met Office forecast, there is an 80 per cent chance of more heavy snow at Manchester Airport between 2pm and 5pm today. From 5pm until the evening, it is forecast to be dry but foggy. Temperatures are likely to be around 1C or 2C for most of the day, dropping to 0C by the late evening.
Met Office chief meteorologist Dan Stroud described the weather on Saturday morning as “a continuation of the very cold and frosty theme”. For the rest of today, he said there will be “a lot of dry and fine weather during the day but feeling very cold out there with temperatures struggling into low single figures".
The forecaster advised people to “stay up to date with the latest forecast forecasts, and if you are travelling, plan your route carefully, take extra cautions and give yourself extra time to travel because roads will be slippery and there will be a lot of frost around the place.”
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