More than 12,000 British Airways passengers are facing cancellations as flights from Heathrow airport are grounded due to freezing fog.
More than 80 BA flights have been grounded on the first day of the working week as the “flow rate” of arrivals has been reduced because of fog at the UK’s busiest airport, which is also experiencing severe cold – with a temperature of minus 8C.
Links with Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Milan Malpensa, Paris CDG and Stockholm are seeing multiple cancellations. One long-haul departure, to Miami, has been grounded due to weather.
On Sunday at least 70 British Airways flights were cancelled due to fog at Heathrow.
At least 20 outbound departures to domestic and European destinations were axed, with the corresponding inbound flights on Monday morning cancelled.
Some Sunday flights to London are heavily delayed, with arrivals from Bologna, Larnaca, Madrid and Warsaw at least 14 hours late.
A British Airways spokesperson said: “Like other airlines, our schedule has been affected today due to fog experienced across London.
“We apologise to customers and are doing everything we can to get them on their way as quickly as possible.
“We advise customers to check ba.com for the latest flight information.”
There is a yellow warning in place in England for freezing fog on Monday, covering Yorkshire, the southeast and the Midlands.
Visibility could dip as low as 50m and forecasters have warned of an increased chance of accidents or injuries. Drivers have been told to expect probably slower travel times.
Some are now worrying Britain could face a longer period of cold weather in February if a polar vortex forms.
This weather phenomenon was partly responsible for the Beast from the East that hit Britain in late February and early March in 2018. It also contributed to December 2010’s Big Freeze.
Britain could face even more extreme weather due to a rare phenomenon known as sudden stratospheric warming, which would shunt large quantities of cold low-level polar air over the UK.
However, speaking to The Independent The Met Office suggested such predictions should be treated cautiously.
Much of the UK woke up to below freezing temperatures
“For the week ahead in the northern half of the UK we’re actually seeing temperatures above normal, and that will continue until about Thursday.
“In the south we’re still on the rather cold side but I think with a little bit more in the way of cloud developing over the next few days. Nights probably won’t be as cold as they have been,” said Craig Snell, senior operational meteorologist at Met Office.
Referring to the sudden stratospheric warming, Mr Snell said: “It’s too early to say, one if we will have a stratospheric warming, two how that strong that stratospheric warming would be, and three how that influences the UK. Unfortunately, we won’t know that until we get into February.”
The Met Office has warned to travel disruption because of the fog
