Severe weather causes travel misery for thousands of air passengers with delays throughout weekend

Passengers at Luton, Gatwick and Heathrow have been worst affected

One of the busiest weekends of the year for air travel has begun with widespread disruption for passengers.

Severe weather is being blamed for long delays and dozens of cancellations on flights to and from airports in southeast England.

At Luton airport, the mopping-up operation continues after rain started pouring through the roof of the terminal on Friday afternoon.

The airport is telling passengers: “We’ve worked hard to restore airport operations as quickly as possible. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience.”

One round-trip from Luton to Nice on easyJet has been cancelled so far this morning. The airline told passengers at 3am: “We’re very sorry that your flight has been cancelled. We understand that this is late notice but due a lightning strike to two of our planes, we’ve had to make changes to our flying programme and we are unable to operate your flight.

“The disruption is beyond our control and is considered an extraordinary circumstance.”

It adds to the easyJet eight cancellations on Friday evening to and from Luton, including some at very late notice.

Paul McNamara told The Independent on Friday: “EasyJet have surpassed themselves this evening. My three-month-pregnant daughter travelling with her two-year-old is on a cancelled flight to Menorca from Luton.

“Nobody around to tell them what to do as they have passed passport control. All staff seem to have disappeared. I wrote to online customer services who have sent an automated reply that they will get back in 28 days – you couldn’t make it up. The telephone shut at 8pm.”

His daughter was later booked on a British Airways flight from Gatwick on Saturday afternoon, and given a hotel room.

A spokesperson for easyJet said: “Due to adverse weather conditions, easyJet, like other airlines, is experiencing disruption to its flying programme at London Luton Airport.

“As a result of flooding of the immigration area, passenger flow through immigration has been reduced, leading to delays for arriving passengers and which has had a knock-on effect for some departing flights.

“Customers on cancelled flights have been given the option of transferring their flight free of charge or receiving a refund.

“We have also provided hotel rooms and meals for customers who required them and any customers who arranged their own will be reimbursed for reasonable expenses.”

Another dozen easyJet flights between Gatwick and various European locations were grounded on Friday, with severe weather and air traffic control restrictions blamed for some short-notice cancellations.

Flights connecting Amsterdam with Manchester and Southend were also cancelled.

One passenger stranded in Amsterdam by easyJet on Friday evening tweeted on Saturday morning: “Finally home. My flight from Amsterdam to London was cancelled yesterday evening, @easyJet​ abandoned the desk without sorting everybody out, including me. Managed to get a flight for this morning with the lovely @British_Airways. But EJ be expecting the claims and complaints.”

Disruption at easyJet has continued on Saturday morning. A round-trip from Bristol to Amsterdam was grounded “due to a crew member being unable to operate your flight”.

An inbound flight from Madrid to Gatwick was cancelled “because of air traffic control restrictions causing long delays yesterday”.

Passengers were told: “This means your plane it’s out of position and it’s not able to operate you flight [sic].” They were warned they would not qualify for cash compensation for the cancellation.

Some flights to and from Heathrow have been cancelled or severely delayed, particularly on British Airways.

BA has so far cancelled eight flights into Heathrow, as a result of problems on Friday, and its sister airline Iberia has grounded a round-trip from and to Madrid.

At Heathrow, British Airways passengers from Dubai arrived 17 hours late. A Friday night flight from Edinburgh is currently delayed by 16 hours, while a flight from Shanghai due in at 6.15am on Saturday morning is 24 hours behind schedule.

One BA service from Munich to London City has been diverted to Southend.

BA cancelled nearly 200 flights on Wednesday and Thursday as a result of an IT systems failure.

Security staff at Barcelona airport are staging a 24-hour strike, but the government has mandated that staff maintain 90 per cent of the usual level of cover and no delays are yet reported.