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Travel Desk
Heathrow airport’s operator, BAA came under a barrage of criticism for cancelling flights on Sunday because of 10cm of snow, and has confirmed that flights on Monday resumed to fly out stranded passengers.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled on Sunday and 45 on Monday morning at Heathrow, whereas Gatwick and Stansted remained open, with no cancellations. BAA attributed the flight’s cancellation to poor visibility and freezing fog conditions. Snow also caused disruption on the roads and delays and cancellations across the Southern Railway’s network.
10cm of snow caused disruption for passengers at Heathrow airport, where 50 per cent of the flights were cancelled. 1,300 planes were supposed to take off on Sunday but BAA decided to reduce the flights to 753.
Justine Greening, transport secretary, defended BAA’s decision to reduce the number of flights in advance as the “right approach”. “Actually cancelling flights in advance so passengers don’t get to the airport and then find their flight being cancelled was one of the main recommendations of the inquiry that Heathrow held into the debacle last year when we saw huge disruption”, he told the BBC.
BAA also considers that they took the right snow plan, as airlines were able to rebook some people on to departing flights, according to an article published by the Financial Times. BAA also diverted several flights to other destinations such as Cardiff and Glasgow, according to an article by the BBC.
To cause the lowest level of disruption, personnel were helping passengers to rebook their flights and find hotels. However, some of them had to spend the night at Heathrow, criticizing the flight’s cancellation. Critics were harsher in December 2010, when 9cm of snow left thousands of passengers stranded the week before Christmas after shutting the airport.
Snow also caused disruption on several roads. For example, drivers were stranded in their cars for several hours due to standstills on the M40 and M25 motorways, according to a report published by the Financial Times. There were also disruptions across Southern Railway’s network, with several delays and cancellations.
According to the weather forecast by the Met Office, the UK is unlikely to see heavy snow this week. However, experts warn about ice on the roads and predict treacherous road conditions in the coming days, especially in the east and south east, with snow melting during the day and expected to refreeze overnight. Cold is expected to continue all week with -10c in areas of London and the south-east being predicted.
Reporting by Paula Planelles
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