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The coldest night of the year has unleashed travel chaos across the U.K. as swathes of the nation were hit by ice, fog and snow.
According to aviation data crunchers Cirium, there were more than 316 cancellations to and from U.K. airports this weekend morning, accounting for around 11% of all scheduled flights — 119 of which were scheduled to depart or arrive at London Heathrow Airport (LHR)
Gatwick (LGW), Stansted (STN) and Manchester (MAN) airports were all forced to close briefly last night as workers cleared snow from their runways, causing a number of delays and cancellations, which have bled into today.
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“London Stansted Airport’s runway is currently closed to allow for snow clearance due to weather conditions and all flights are currently suspended,” said a spokesperson last night, although the runway has since been reopened.
Gatwick Airport blamed “unforecast snow” for the forced closure of its runway that saw some 30 flights diverted to other airports as far afield as Manchester and Amsterdam. Today the airport said 40 flights of 270 had been cancelled — almost 15%.
“The airport is open and flights are operating; however, snow and freezing weather is causing some delays and cancellations at the airport today. Passengers are advised to check flight status with their airline — and also local travel conditions — before departing for the airport.”
Related: How do pilots take off in a snowstorm?
Meanwhile, most other major airports are suffering delays and cancellations today. One of the worst-hit was London City, where 34 flights were grounded according to Flight Aware, while a number of inbound aircraft were diverted to Norwich, Birmingham and Cardiff. Some were even turned around and sent back to their point of origin.
With the cold snap set to continue, many travellers are rightly concerned about their upcoming travel plans.
So what should you do if you’re worried about your flight?
If you’re concerned that your flight may be affected, the first point of call should be your airline. Here are the phone numbers for major U.K. airlines:
British Airways is understood to have grounded more than 70 short-haul flights to and from London Heathrow, on top of 50 flights to and from London City, and around a dozen to and from Gatwick.
The airlines said: “Due to continuing adverse winter weather conditions across the United Kingdom, we have had to reduce our schedule across our London Airports on Sunday 11th December and Monday 12th December.
“We’re very sorry for the disruption and are taking steps to ensure as many as possible are able to travel as planned. Customers whose flights have been cancelled are being offered the option to rebook onto alternative flights and we’re handing out refreshment vouchers and offering hotel accommodation where needed.”
It added that any customers on cancelled flights, who no longer wish to travel, can get a full refund.
If you find out more about your flight’s status, you can do so on BA’s website, here, or call 0800 727 800 (between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. GMT).
To track your flight status, select the “flight status” dropdown on the website’s homepage, or call 0844 209 7777.
The Irish carrier’s webpage has a dedicated flight status page.
The airline says: “As the snowy weather continues across the UK, our teams are working hard to minimise disruption to customers and Ryanair advises all customers flying from the UK today (12 Dec) to check the Ryanair website/app for flight status updates before travelling to the airport.
“We sincerely apologise for these weather-related disruptions which are entirely beyond our control.”
You can track your flight’s status on easyJet’s website here.
A spokesperson for easyJet said the airline had to cancel 16 flights yesterday after Manchester Airport closed its runway to clear snow. They said the airline was doing “everything possible to minimise disruption for passengers”.
Related: easyJet avoids Christmas strike by French cabin crew – after striking a pay deal with unions
In a statement, the 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.
“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.”
Jet2 says it is “aware” of the snowy conditions affecting some airlines’ operations but insisted all its flights “are currently expected to operate at their scheduled departure time”.
Adding that travel to airports could be disrupted, it added: “Please allow sufficient time for your journey to the airport.”
You can check the status of your Jet2 flight on it website here. Or call the airline on 0333 300 0042.
TUI’s flight tracker system is on its website here.
Most airlines will offer full refunds for cancelled flights if you no longer want to travel. But knock-on costs that are out of your control can add up, and you may feel your airline should help cover some of those expenses too.
In this case, you can easily apply for compensation. Whether you will get any or not is more complicated.
In principle, Under U.K. and EU law, an airline does not have to pay compensation if a delay or cancellation is caused by an “extraordinary circumstance”, such as extreme weather, terrorism, and so on.
However, according to Coby Benson, flight compensation expert at Bott&Co Solicitors, it is a common misconception that snow is an extraordinary circumstance. It is in fact, far more nuanced than that.
Related: Eurostar passengers could face ‘severely’ disrupted services as security staff plan Christmas strikes
“It is not exceptional to see snow in December,” he says. “In fact, there was a Court of Appeal ruling where the judge ruled that extraordinary circumstances, including bad weather, has to be, in his words, ‘freakish’ or ‘wholly exceptional’. So you have to ask yourself, is snowfall in December really freakish or wholly exceptional? No, it is clearly not.”
He says he has won many cases against airlines refusing compensation where the deay or cancellation was caused by snow. “Airlines should be prepared to face disruption in snowy weather,” he adds.
There is, however, a “big caveat”, he says. If a disruption is caused by an Air Traffic Management Decision (ATMD), an airline can fall back on that as an excuse. “There are many ATMDs made during the day, and it can be tricky to pin the cancellation of a particular flight on one, but airlines will try to use it anyway to get out of paying compensation.”
Flight delays may not be a traveller’s only concern.
On trains, cancellations across the network were rife today as snow and ice brought many trains to a halt. Southern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express trains are also heavily disrupted.
However, the impact of the weather has been compounded by this week’s four-day rail-worker strike, beginning tomorrow. And Network Rail had already told travellers to avoid the railways this week unless absolutely necessary.
The bad news: many travellers had set off today specifically to avoid the strike disruption.
As for the airport express train services, at the time of writing, most were running smoothly despite the snow.
Related: Network Rail urges passengers not to travel by train this week
Heathrow Express said it was running a “good service” today, while the Gatwick Express made no mention of snow on their websites but urged travellers to only use its services when necessary this week due to industrial action.
The Stansted Express struck a similar tone, telling passengers that from tomorrow services will be “severely reduced and disrupted”.
Met Office spokesperson Nicola Maxey told us not to put away our hats and scarves just yet — the cold snap will continue for the rest of the week. And we can expect storms to hit when the weather warms.
“It will continue to be cold this week with a change that won’t come until we go into next week,” she said. “The milder air will be warmer than what we’re experiencing now, but it can bring more moisture which might bring some unsettled weather with it. That could bring some further disruption of its own.”
If you’re flying by air today and tomorrow it would be wise to expect some disruption to your journey, be it a delayed or cancelled flight or knock-on effects from the U.K.’s rail strikes this week. Should your flight be cancelled it may seem like you can’t claim compensation due to the snow being categorised as an “unforeseen circumstance” — however, this rule may not apply and it’s absolutely worth following the compensation claim process of your airline.
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