Fog disrupts UK airports, causing flight delays and cancellations

Thick fog has caused widespread travel disruption at UK airports, with hundreds of flights delayed or cancelled.

Visibility was reduced to 100 metres in some parts of the country on Friday night and Nats, the air traffic control service, said that temporary restrictions were put in place, News.Az reports, citing The Times.

Dozens of flights from Heathrow, Gatwick and City airports in London were cancelled, affecting an estimated 20,000 passengers, with some flights delayed by up to three hours. Manchester, Glasgow and Cardiff airports were also affected.

Flights on Saturday morning were significantly delayed or cancelled, according to the airport arrival and departure boards at Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester. The affected journeys included getaways to Malaga, Venice and Barcelona.

Flightradar24, a tracking website, reported that Gatwick was the most disrupted airport on Saturday morning with average delays of 40 minutes for departures and 81 minutes for arrivals.

A spokesman for Gatwick airport said in a statement: “Temporary air traffic restrictions have been put in place due to fog causing poor visibility. Some flights may be delayed throughout the day. London Gatwick apologises for any inconvenience. Passengers should contact their airline for further information.”

Nats, which handles about 2.5 million flights to and from the UK each year, said that the restrictions “are only ever applied to maintain safety”.

“We continue to monitor the situation and have a Met Office expert embedded within our operation to ensure we have the latest available information,” a spokesman said. “Our teams are working closely with the airports and airlines to minimise disruption.”

The Met Office had not issued any weather warnings for this weekend but had forecast that the “murky” conditions would continue throughout Saturday before brighter weather arrives on Sunday.

News.Az