This weekend’s heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures have caused chaos at London Heathrow airport, with only one runway currently open, and BA reporting “many areas of the airfield” remaining unusable, “including areas around parked aircraft”.
Airport operator BAA says it is “open and operating a limited schedule of arrivals and departures”, but warns that it expects “further cancellations and delays in the coming days, as airlines move diverted aircraft and crew back to their normal positions and we continue to manage the impacts of the poor weather over the weekend and in the days ahead”.
In a statement released at 1100 GMT today, British Airways says that "We are operating a small number of shorthaul flights this morning but due to the severe restrictions to flights at the Airport all shorthaul flights after 1200 have been cancelled".
BAA advises that “passengers should not come to the airport without a confirmed booking”, and adds that if in any doubt, passengers “must consult their airlines before travelling”.
However this may prove easier said than done for many, as the British Airways website seems unable to cope with the increased traffic. Business Traveller has been regularly checking the website this morning, and on several occasions the homepage did not load. In addition, the “check the status of your flight” link currently goes to a blank page (as at 1040 GMT).
A spokesperson for BA said the carrier was “working to restore full [website] functionality”, and added that “we should have some more information soon regarding the rest of the days schedule”.
A selection of the tweets posted on the BAA Heathrow Twitter feed this morning include:
“A flight arrives or departs every 45 secs on a normal day at LHR, so with one runway open only a limited no. of flights will operate today.” (posted around 0900)
“We can't confirm the status of Tuesday flights yet, but do keep checking here for updates, as well as with your airline” (posted around 1045)
The BBC is reporting that "thousands of people" were forced to spend the Sunday night at Heathrow, and describes the situation as a "virtual shutdown". Are you currently at Heathrow waiting for a flight? Let us know your experiences by posting on our forum here.
