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No end in sight for holiday travel misery
Last updated at 13:52pm on 22.12.06
The fog which blanketed Heathrow has grounded nearly half of British Airways short-haul flights
More than 40,000 passengers are stranded at fog-bound Heathrow today. Families are being forced to queue outside in freezing conditions after emergency tents erected to deal with the overflow of people filled up.
Some have been stuck in what they described as a "living hell" since Wednesday when flights began to be cancelled due to poor visibility. Many have been forced to sleep on the floor.
See more pictures of the fog: London blinded by fog
Q&A: Why is Heathrow in chaos?
• Passengers to be refunded for lost flights
• Fog finally set to lift over weekend
• Pile-ups on the roads • Christmas travel warnings
Staff were reduced to giving out woolly hats and gloves as airport operator BAA was accused of being unable to cope.
Heathrow has cancelled 60 per cent of flights today. British Airways axed its entire domestic schedule.
With no sign of the fog lifting, flights tomorrow and Sunday are now under threat.
Fog is causing problems on the roads, with one man killed in a crash on the A20 leading to delays for motorists heading for channel ports.
Rail operators were braced for the busiest day of the year as air passengers piled on to packed long-distance trains.
Heathrow bosses faced fury from stranded passengers as thousands were left outside in freezing conditions.
Up to 70,000 people were caught up in a fresh set of cancellations as the fog-bound airport axed almost two-thirds of its flights.
Many opted not to travel to the airport, but about 40,000 passengers were believed to be stuck there, facing conditions one described as a "living hell".
There were huge queues of tired, frustrated and increasingly angry travellers - many with children - at Heathrow and Gatwick, many forced into emergency tents.
At Heathrow the tents were quickly packed full and the queue outside stretched for several hundred yards. BAA staff gave out woolly hats and gloves.
Sophia Hesse, 21, who was trying to get home to her family in Munich, said she was told the next available flight was not until Wednesday.
"It was mayhem. Nobody could tell me what was going on," she said.
George Iglesias, trying to get a flight home to Madrid, said: "The frustration and inconvenience caused to so many people is just a living hell."
BA cancelled 170 flights to and from Heathrow including many shorthaul and all domestic services. It said a full long-haul programme of 140 flights would "operate as normal".
Airport owner BAA said about 200,000 people were scheduled to fly out of the airport today.
Tens of thousands now face a stay-at-home Christmas after having given up their plans to get away.
British Airways admitted that up to 70,000 travellers out of 400,000 due to travel on Wednesday, Thursday and today have been "directly affected" by the fog.
Many of those have chosen "not to travel or have chosen some other means such as road or rail," said the airline.
But this is the busiest day for rail travel - and on the roads drivers faced a double problem of fog and extra traffic as travellers who would normally take domestic flights drove.
Police appealed to motorists to slow down and keep their distance as they continued to clear wreckage from a series of accidents on major roads.
Worst-hit was the M20 through Kent to the ferry ports and the Channel tunnel, where rescue crews this morning battled to clear the motorway after a fatal accident last night.
One driver was killed as four lorries, a car and a horsebox collided in dense fog near Ashford.
Domestic train services from London to the Midlands, North and Scotland are also very heavily booked and operators were adopting a queuing system to allocate unbooked seats.
Edward Funnell, spokesman for the Association of Train Operating Companies, said he was "confident" the rail firms would be able to cope with the extra travellers.
Eurostar services to Paris and Brussels have about 16,000 people travelling and there are very few seats left.
There is now a huge backlog of passengers desperately trying to rebook their flights but with little hope of doing so before Christmas.
BA used coaches to ferry stranded travellers from Heathrow via the Channel Tunnel to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam; other coaches were operating to Newcastle, Manchester, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
BA spokesman Paul Marston said: "We will put passengers in hotels if they have nowhere to go. We have 3,000 hotel rooms booked. I don't know how many were used last night but none of our passengers slept at the airport.
"Sadly we are not unused to this kind of disruption, and we were well prepared."
Asked how much the disruption would cost the airline, he added: "Obviously there's a financial impact when something like this happens. Passengers have to be put on other flights or have tickets refunded.
"I wouldn't know where to begin to calculate the cost, but I guess it's fair to say it will be millions. We are focusing on providing as much of our normal service as we can and giving passengers as much help as we can."
A Father Christmas was brought in to help entertain bored and restless children in the packed airport lounges.
Geoff Want, BA's director of ground operations, described the fog as "unprecedented" in recent times.
"Faced with the likelihood of continuing fog we are urging customers due to travel over the weekend on domestic services to and from Heathrow to begin thinking about alternative ways of travelling wherever possible in case the current weather persists," he said.
The continuing disruption highlighted the row over plans for a third runway. The problems at Heathrow are directly related to safety.
Air Traffic Control ordered that landings and take-offs - about 45 an hour - be reduced to half because of poor visibility on the ground.
Jim McAuslan, general secretary of the pilots union Balpa, said the chaos was the "unacceptable face of civil aviation in the UK."
He said the problem at Heathrow is that once an aircraft has landed it may have to stay on the runway until escorted off by a ground vehicle as the pilots may not be able to identify the taxiway exit in the fog.
Mr McAuslan said: "All professional pilots have safety as their first priority so these procedures are essential but what Heathrow should have had by now is a third runway.
"It is appalling that in this country it takes so long to put in the airport infrastructure we need."
BA has appealed to passengers to only use the emergency helpline number - 0800 727800 - to rebook their tickets. Others wanting refunds or other inquiries should log onto www.ba.com or write.
Reader views (25)
... In sum, she lost three days of her life and a lot of money. BA was insulting and failed to provide any useful information. They would not even tell her that it was unlikely that she would get a flight with them.
In addition, they lost her baggage at Heathrow and we do not know where it is now. Perhaps it will be back in a month? But that is another story, as we all know, BA has a history of being the worse European airline in that aspect as well.
- A, London, UK
... crashed into a building. Everybody therefore had to stay onto the plane until 1:00 in the morning.
They were directed towards the luggage carroussel. Only to be informed that there luggage had been lost.
At 2:00 in the morning, the luggages were found on the plane. However they were told that since all the staff had gone home by now, they had to call BA the next day to get their luggage or reschedule a flight.
The next morning we called, but at the number given we were greeted by an answering machine that simply told us that they were busy and automatically hung up.
We called BA's "executive club"'s hotline for assistance. We were told "sorry, there are gold card holders on hold" and hung up on.
It was impossible to reach anyone or to get any information from BA. If we did get someone, they would hung up on us as rudely as possible.
After trying for 5 hours, the initial number finally worked and a flight was booked for Friday morning from City Airport.
She took the very first train in the morning and was at the airport at 06.30 in the morning today. There she had to wait until 11.00 to be told that the 8.00 flight was cancelled.
Completely fed up, she gave up. She had to book a hugely expensive Eurostar ticked to Belgium and from there will have to find a way to go to Frankfurt (probably another train)...
- A, London, UK
Here is my girlfriend's story. She booked a flight from London to Frankfurt a months ago so she could spend Christmas with her family. The flight was due to take off at 20:00 last Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, she checked BA's and the tube's website to see if it was still on on Thursday morning. Both reported the standard amount of problems in London, but just to make sure she arrived at 15:00 at the airport.
She was denied entry and directed to a freezing tent. She stuck there for three hours and told that they could not confirm her flight. When she asked where she could get a cup of tea, she was told that she had to buy one inside the airport, but "oops, that's right, you're not allowed to go in". Nobody got any food or drinks.
Finally, after three hours they let her in. Nobody knew if the flight would be on or not. Finally, around 21:00 (6 hours after her arrival at Heathrow) she was told that the flight was confirmed. Everybody was pleased.
They checked in all the luggage and everybody went through security onto the plane.
There they were told that they had to wait for the de-icing machine. Once it arrived, it turned out that it did not work properly and they would need a second machine. The second machine finally arrived, but by 23:00 (8 hours after arriving at the airport) the pilot announced that it did not work either and that the flight was cancelled.
He then announced that they could not get off the plane has a lorry had crashed...
- A, London, UK
Everyone knows that at this time of year if you choose to fly, it's a 50/50 chance you will be stuck in an airport. If you haven't packed a sleeping bag, water, books, food, etc then you have nobody to blame but yourselves.
- Craig, USA
Michael in London: The British stiff upper lip no longer exists because you lot spend all your time whinging.
- Erin, London
I've seen way more fog around in North-East America than I ever saw in London (where I lived for 15 years), but people here in the US still seem to think that London is foggy. Perhaps they have been watching too many old Sherlock Holmes movies.
- Bert, Ithaca, USA
Environmentalists should be happy - there'll be a whole lot less pollution as a result of the cancelled flights. Every cloud has a silver lining.
- Keith, Farringdon
Michael of London, You must be referring to the same Americans as Gwyneth, and they would have to be stupid to go to London for the holidays.
- Scott, USA
"...and the Americans (stupid)..."
Gee. Thanks, Michael. We love you too.
- Mike, Tampa Bay, Florida, USA
I cannot understand why people are getting so worked up about 'weather'. It is one of the few things the government cannot dabble with. I can understand the French (over emotional) and the Americans (stupid) getting wound up, but whatever happned to the British 'stiff upper lip'!
- Michael, London
"The saddest part is THIS is the top news in the world of the hour according to google.
- Bob Sammit, Earth"
Would you rather have another bombing leading the news?
- Observer, USA
I have to agree with most of the posters, this time of year we all know what the weather can be like, and to book an internal flight without making some sort of backup plan is daft. And to get angry with BA is also daft as BA dont control the weather so its not there fault.
The best thing to do is stop maoning at BA and get there act together and arrange another form of transport to get to there destanation, as getting angry is not going to get them to where they want to go.
- John, London
Fog? In London? I'm shocked, shocked!
- Edmund Cramp, Baton Rouge, LA
Stansted has no delays? EasyJet, RyanAir...if BA had some organization they could raise capacity there and coach the europe hops up there.
- Ampel, NYC
The saddest part is THIS is the top news in the world of the hour according to google.
- Bob Sammit, Earth
Instead of going away to spend some time at the airports British travellers can now stay home and spend some money in the shops. UK shops need a boost at last the weather is on our side.
- Stephen Peters, UK
Ted - you're right - "trains don't run across the Atlantic" - which is, presumably, why BA are concentrating on putting their effort into long-haul flights, thereby helping those who have no alternative means of getting to their destination.
Anyone who books an internal flight in the UK in December and then gets angry because it gets affected by the weather shouldn't be allowed out on their own.
- Paul, Leicester, UK
With all the queing at supermarket check-outs, impatient people, house cluttered with decorated trees, relatives drinking your booze, a period at Christmas relaxing in an Airport lounge might be therapeutic!
- Roy Gilbert, Solihull, England
Nice anorak, Heather, particularly in beige. Oh, and by the way, the trains don't run across the Atlantic.
- Ted, Shetland
Air traffic control is quite right to restrict flights for safety reasons.
Its the airlines who should be blamed here for cramming money-making flights into an already congested timetable.
- William Grierson, Kimpton, UK
An anagram of 'Tony Blair' is 'Not by rail'. Enough said really!
- Andrew, Kingston, Uk
Simple - next time you fly go one way. I know I will.
- Jay, London
My flight to get home to my parents in Scotland has just been cancelled, and Virgin has just charged me over £100 for a single ticket. Plus I can't reserve a seat, as the person I was talking to in Bangalore was struggling with her English in order to understand me, therefore will probably be sitting on my suitcase most of the way. Grrrr, Bah Humbug!
- Sophie, London
If people travel by plane at this time of year they must expect to have problems due to weather, all it takes is calling the aiport before you leave the house!
Instead of investing in more and more runways at airports so we can have MORE chaos when we have 'weather' how about investing more in the railway infrastructure? We need fast, reliable trains that are affordable.
I use the trains now and by the time I add in travel time to airport, time spent sitting at the aiport, flight time and then time waiting for luggage and battling my way out the airport I've had a busy day running from car to airport terminus, to waiting gate, to plane, to car again, all of these added together mean it's no faster to fly than it is to take the train, especially with most companies now insisting on a 2hr check in for domestic flights.
It takes me an hour and a half to get to the airport, two hours waiting for the plane, 1.5hrs to fly south, 45 mins waiting for luggage and an hour to get a train to central London, a total of around 6hrs. The train from Glasgow takes five hours and arrives in central London and it only takes me 40 minutes to get to the national train station, by local train.
It's much easier to just get on a train, sit down, be served coffee where I sit by a nice trolley person and then get off calm and chilled at the other end. Booked far enough in advance there's not much price difference by the time you add aiport taxes to your £20 flight. You can even book a seat.
- Heather, Glasgow, UK
I see `Mr Tony' made it back okay. What IS it with that guy?
- Ted, Shetland
