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UK Airport Disruption Continues Amid Heatwave and Storms
Confirmed
In Short: As heatwaves and storms disrupt UK airports, more than 200 flights were cancelled at Heathrow and Gatwick, raising concerns about future climate impacts.
UK airports faced significant disruption on a busy Saturday, with over 200 flights cancelled at Heathrow and Gatwick, as thunderstorms hit the region during a heatwave.
A spokesperson for the National Air Traffic Control Service (Nats) stated that engineers had identified and fixed the technical issue causing the disruption, though recovery took longer than expected.
The boss of Nats, Josie Donoghue, accepted full responsibility for the technical issue, which caused mass disruption to flights across the UK on Tuesday.
Passengers at Bristol Airport were warned of more disruption on Wednesday, while Heathrow suspended arrivals for the rest of the day due to technical issues at an air traffic control provider.
The incident highlights growing concerns that such disruptions will become more common as climate change intensifies, potentially affecting all London airports simultaneously and causing significant delays and frustration for travelers.
What's still developing
- Aviation faces hotter, stormier skies – and passengers might have to accept more disruption As the country sweltered through one of the many heatwaves of a baking summer in late June, towering thunderclouds were gathering over the south of England and across much of northern Europe.
- Aircraft are legally required to carry enough fuel to take them to an alternative airport if necessary, and to allow them to fly for an extra 30 minutes on top of that.
- In the end, some 900 flights to and from both airports were delayed, some by up to 11 hours.
- But there are concerns that such incidents are only going to become more common as the effects of climate change mount up around the world and weather systems are likely to become increasingly unstable, making disruption more likely and adding to costs for airlines, airports and travellers.
- He thinks there is a real risk, for example, that all of London's airports could be affected by storms at the same time, potentially with major consequences in the air and on the ground.
- "We're going from the kind of weather activity which takes out an airport, and which the system kind of copes with… to a situation where, with very little predictability, it would be possible to lose all of the London airports from real-time operation quite swiftly and with little notice".
- Josie Donoghue had to get off her flight to Ireland after spending three hours on the runway, and said that getting through Gatwick airport was like “trying to get out of Alcatraz”.
- We were told we couldn’t get out until the flights were cancelled, and then eventually they allowed us to get out.“ She added: “It’s just an absolute nightmare down there, it’s the only word I can use to describe it.