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Freezing fog cancels Heathrow and Gatwick flights

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Fog is covering the south-east of England and parts of Europe

Flights have been cancelled at the UK's two biggest airports because of freezing fog.

Easyjet said it had cancelled 56 flights at Gatwick airport, which has drafted in extra staff and ground handlers to keep people moving.

Heathrow said more than 100 flights had been cancelled.

A spokesman for Gatwick said dense fog had caused delays and cancellations and apologised for the "unavoidable and unfortunate disruption". He said air traffic control restrictions had been imposed because of the heavy fog over south-east England and parts of Europe, where many aircraft were headed. "Passengers are strongly advised to check with their airline as to the status of their flight before travelling if possible," he added.

Heathrow told the BBC 119 flights had been cancelled and more may be cancelled later.

London City airport said about 26 flights had been diverted, and more than 60 arriving and 70 departing flights had been cancelled.

Easyjet said all airlines had been advised by Gatwick to cancel some flights.

An airline spokesman said: "While these circumstances are outside of the airline's control, Easyjet apologises for any inconvenience caused and would like to reassure passengers that we are doing everything possible to minimise the disruption."

The National Air Traffic Control Service (Nats) said the fog had caused disruption because greater spacing was required between aircraft to ensure safety when visibility was poor.

A spokesman for Nats said: "We are working closely with our airline and airport customers to minimise disruption to their operations."

I find it an interesting comparison with the railways, where airports and airline operators are also apologising profusely for something which really is beyond their control.

From the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38472135):

Well, it's similar in the two cases in that the customer-facing element (airline or TOC) apologises without blaming other actors, but calling it inevitable where possible. But really there's not so much difference between "someone else screwed up" and "we as an industry could have done more to prevent this being such a problem".

For fog, it's running Gatwick and Heathrow at over 90% of capacity on a good day that leaves nothing to spare when landing rates have to be reduced. Responsibility for that is spread pretty widely, though, and arguably outside the industry as much as inside.

There's another parallel with that, which is what Graham was saying earlier tonight, starting from the TOCs' hubristic account of how they squeezed more passengers into the same trains. In both cases the industry could claim success internally at solving a short-term problem, but should be more honest about the cost - largely borne by the travelling public as discomfort and disruption.

How's that going to work? I mean, even a short trip like to Amsterdam is going to take ages.