For a third weekend in a row, thousands of airline passengers woke up where they did not intend to be after large-scale flight cancellations. The Independent calculates that at least 150 flights to, from and within the UK were grounded on Sunday 5 January alone because of heavy snow and high winds.
With few alternative departures available, it is likely that 20,000 passengers were stranded – both in the UK and abroad – because their flights were cancelled or diverted.
The biggest problems were at Manchester airport, where the runway was closed because of snow for three hours on Sunday morning. The closure triggered 15 diversions – mainly of intercontinental flights – and 70 cancellations.
Some planes were diverted abroad, to Paris, Dublin and Shannon. The unluckiest passengers to be caught up in the snow chaos were the 243 on board Singapore Airlines flight SQ52, who endured not one but two diversions from Manchester to Gatwick.
The Airbus A350 from Singapore was due to land at Manchester at 8.35am on Sunday. As the plane approached northwest England, it went into a holding pattern over Leicestershire for 20 minutes before turning south to Gatwick.
According to Jennifer Kerry, whose daughter and son-in-law were on board, passengers were not allowed to leave the plane on arrival at the Sussex airport. About three hours later, the plane took off for Manchester. But after a further 40 minutes circling over the Peak District, they returned to Gatwick – having to hold for a further 20 minutes before landing because of congestion.
“They have just been given a few snacks in the last half-hour, the first food since 4am,” Ms Kerry said on Sunday.
“They have now been on the plane for over 22 hours. Talk of them flying up later tonight. They then have to travel across the Pennines on the M62 to get home in this horrible weather.
“Not the best treatment from supposedly the world’s best airline,” Ms Kerry concluded.
The plane finally left Gatwick for a successful third attempt at landing in Manchester, touching down soon after 7pm.
A spokesperson for Singapore Airlines said: “We are providing all necessary assistance to the affected passengers, including providing hotel accommodation and the rebooking of connecting flights.
“SIA sincerely apologises to all affected passengers for the inconvenience caused. The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority.”
Twenty flights were cancelled to and from Liverpool John Lennon airport on Sunday after it was closed due to snow, with a further 28 at Leeds Bradford.
The two flights most heavily delayed by airport snow closures in northwest England are finally in the air, over a day late.
First away was easyJet’s delayed flight 2221 from Manchester airport to Sofia. The tardy take-off was at 10.10am on Monday, 28 hours later than originally planned. Passengers are due to arrive in the Bulgarian capital at 3.30pm.
Even more delayed: easyJet flight 3355 from Liverpool John Lennon airport to Alicante. Costa Blanca-bound holidaymakers left Merseyside at 10.44am, exactly 28 hours and 39 minutes behind schedule.
A spokesperson for easyJet said: “Due to adverse weather conditions across the UK this weekend, airlines experienced some disruption to their flying programmes which meant some flights were unable to operate as planned.
“The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority and we have done all possible to mitigate impact of the weather disruption. Any customers whose flights have been cancelled have been notified and provided with the option to transfer to an alternative flight free of charge, or receive a refund and we are providing hotel accommodation and meals.
“We would advise that should customers have made their own arrangements, they will be reimbursed for these.
“Customers due to fly to and from the UK today are advised to check the status of their flights via our Flight Tracker for the latest information.
“While this is outside our control, we are sorry to customers for the inconvenience caused as a result of the weather.”
Manchester airport closed again briefly on Monday morning, leading to the Qatar Airways arrival from Doha landing at Birmingham for a second day running.
Disruption was less extreme than on Sunday morning, partly because several intercontinental flights have been cancelled due to the snow 24 hours earlier. These include Tui from Montego Bay in Jamaica, Hainan Airlines from Beijing and Aer Lingus from Barbados.
On Sunday 22 December, more than 100 flights were grounded at Heathrow because of high winds. Over the weekend of 27-29 December, almost 500 flights were cancelled – many to and from Gatwick – because of thick fog.
