UK weather latest: Thousands of air passengers disrupted as thunderstorms cause travel chaos

Extreme weather causes severe delays at Heathrow, Gatwick, London City and Luton; easyJet and British Airways cancel dozens of flights

Tens of thousands of passengers flying in and out of London have experienced another day of disruption after extreme weather across the southeast caused dozens of cancellations.

Close to 200 flights were cancelled due to a wave of thunderstorms, which forecasters say may continue to batter the country for at least another week.

London is the busiest city in the world for air travel; Gatwick and Heathrow are, respectively, the busiest single-runway and twin-runway airports in the world.

During a third consecutive day of travel disruption, British Airways cancelled nearly 50 flights to and from Heathrow, including short-haul departures to Barcelona, Berlin, Dublin, Edinburgh, Milan, Moscow and Stockholm.

Long-haul passengers also faced problems. After seven hours of postponements, a BA flight to New York was cancelled, while an overnight flight to Chennai left eight hours late.

A spokesperson for British Airways said: “Following one of the busiest weekends of the year, our teams have been working tirelessly to get tens of thousands of customers away on their half term breaks, despite being challenged by bad weather and thunderstorms across Europe.

“We have done everything we can to minimise the disruption, and we have rebooked or refunded the small proportion of customers whose flights have been cancelled.”

Lufthansa and its budget offshoot, Eurowings, grounded departures to Cologne, Dusseldorf Frankfurt and Munich, while flights were also cancelled on Aer Lingus to Dublin, Vueling to La Coruna and SAS to Stockholm.

Passengers changing terminals at Heathrow faced problems caused by the cancellation of the shuttle between Terminal 2/3 and Terminal 4.

More than 50 flights to and from Stansted were cancelled, the vast majority of them on Ryanair — which grounded links to destinations as far away as Riga, Palermo and Lisbon.

At Gatwick, easyJet cancelled 33 flights, including round-trips to Berlin, Paris, Venice and Zurich.

Aer Lingus cancelled a flight to and from Dublin, while British Airways grounded round-trips to Amsterdam, Jersey and Glasgow.

Other passengers at Gatwick endured waits of over four hours for flights on Ryanair to Dublin, Thomas Cook Airlines to Holguin in Cuba and TUI to Antalya in Turkey.

Operations were severely disrupted at London City Airport due to flooding. One British Airways flight from the Isle of Man to the Docklands airport flew to the Thames Estuary, circled in a holding pattern for some time, then – with other London airports experiencing problems – returned to the Isle of Man.

A TAP Portugal service from Porto diverted to Amsterdam.

British Airways cancelled round-trips from London City to Amsterdam, Glasgow and Dusseldorf, while Lufthansa grounded flights from Frankfurt to London City and back.

At Luton, many flights were delayed by two hours or more, while easyJet cancelled 14 flights to destinations including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Geneva, Glasgow, Munich and Nice.

A spokesperson for easyJet said: “Like all airlines, easyJet has faced disruption to its flying programme today as a result of thunderstorms across the UK and has been required to cancel 22 flights to and from London Gatwick and 14 flights to and from London Luton due to restrictions at both airports caused by the adverse local weather conditions.

“EasyJet is doing everything possible to minimise the disruption for customers whose flights have been cancelled as a result of the weather, providing the option to transfer their flight free of charge or receive a refund, as well as providing hotel accommodation and meals for customers where required."

On Sunday, around 100 flights to and from Stansted Airport were cancelled after lightning strikes damaged the fuel supply system.

The following day, dozens of departures from Heathrow were grounded by poor weather.

Further aviation disruption is expected on Wednesday due to a strike by air traffic staff in Greece from 7am to midnight, local time.

Passengers whose flights are cancelled, diverted or severely delayed are entitled to meals and, if necessary, accommodation at the airline’s expense until they can reach their destination.

On the roads, motorists in Kent faced long delays on the M2, with flooding between Junctions 4 and 5 as well as some serious accidents. Highways England warned of delays of over an hour. Shortly before 5pm, at the start of the rush hour, traffic in one bore of the Dartford Tunnel was stopped because of a broken-down vehicle.

Trains on many lines in Kent are heavily delayed or cancelled due to flooding on many lines. London St Pancras, the terminus for high-speed services, is experiencing many delays.

Rail passengers using Britain’s busiest station, London Waterloo, faced delays due to a track-circuit failure at Wimbledon.

The Met Office has issued a yellow alert warning of thundery rain or showers which could bring local flooding to parts of southern England and Wales through Tuesday and into Wednesday morning.

Forecasters say there is a small chance that homes and businesses could be flooded or struck by lightning, causing damage to some buildings, and where flooding does occur there is a slight chance of delays or cancellations to train and bus services.

Spray and flooding could lead to difficult driving conditions and some road closures, while flooding or lightning strikes could cause power cuts in some areas.

The risk of thundery showers is expected to last through the week.