Plane skids off runway at Bristol airport, forcing authorities to halt all flights

BMI jet had just landed with 25 passengers on board

On the busiest day of the winter for travel, Bristol airport is closed because of an incident involving a BMI jet.

The Embraer 145 aircraft had just landed from Frankfurt, an hour behind schedule, and left the runway while taxiing to the terminal.

None of the 25 people on board were hurt.

The airport said: “Passengers were disembarked and returned to the terminal by coach."

Sixteen flights have been diverted and many more cancelled while the incident continues.

With aircraft scattered to other airports from Birmingham to Gatwick, dozens of flights to and from Bristol have been cancelled. Many are on easyJet, but BMI has cancelled services to Frankfurt, Hamburg and Milan. BMI's Munich flight is operating from Exeter airport, 80 miles south-west.

KLM has grounded its link to and from Amsterdam — which will jeopardise intercontinental journeys of some of the passengers booked to fly on it.

The cancellations on easyJet include domestic departures to Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness, for which rail is a possible alternative. But passengers booked to Belfast, Pisa, Prague, Rome, Toulouse and Venice will face bigger problems. With aircraft unexpectedly at airports around southern England and the Midlands, it will take time to restore normal schedules. Once flights are operating, passengers on cancelled flights go to the back of the queue; people who were booked on services that are operating take priority.

Over 190,000 people are due to travel through the airport between Friday and New Year's Day, up five per cent on the same two-week period 12 months ago.

Circle lines: the flightpath of an easyJet flight from Glasgow to Bristol, which diverted to Birmingham (Flightaware.com)

Dave Joyce was due to fly with his family on Ryanair to Alicante in Spain for a holiday in Javea, but was told their plane had been diverted away from the airport.

The 53-year-old finance worker said: "Nothing's moving at the minute and we haven't had any information at all.

"People keep coming but nobody's leaving, so it's all getting pretty crowded just now.

"We've got seats in a restaurant, so we're OK, but my wife's mother is in a wheelchair."

Mr Joyce added: "A great start to the Christmas break... Javea seems a long way away now."

The airport said: “We thank passengers for their patience while we continue to work to resume operations as soon as possible. In the meantime, all passengers are advised to contact their airline to obtain the latest flight information. Additional staff are on hand in the terminal to assist passengers.”

Airlines are obliged to get passengers to their destinations as swiftly as possible, even if it involves buying tickets on a rival’s planes. But flights between now and Christmas are very heavily booked, with few spare seats available. Stranded passengers are entitled to hotels and meals until they reach their destinations, but not compensation.