HOLIDAYMAKERS and students returning home to Cyprus for the Christmas holidays were left stranded yesterday as heavy snowfall in Britain closed Heathrow and Gatwick airports.
British Airways cancelled all flights from London Heathrow and all European and domestic flights from London Gatwick between midday (1000 GMT) and 7.00pm (1700 GMT) yesterday. The early morning BA Heathrow flight to Larnaca managed to leave before the airport closed, but two easyJet flights from Gatwick were cancelled after the airport closed its runway to all inbound and outward flights after the accumulation of about five centimetres of snow, a spokeswoman said.
About 200 of the day’s 500 scheduled flights had been cancelled by mid-day. It was the second time this month that heavy snow had forced its closure.
The Met Office issued a severe weather warning for London and southeast England, with up to 20 cms of snow predicted making more delays likely.
According to the Cyprus Airports spokesman Adamos Aspris, four flights were cancelled, two of them arrivals and two of them departures, all Easyjet and all to and from Gatwick. “One of them was an arrival and a departure for Larnaca and one was for Paphos,” said Aspris.
Savvas Chrysanthou, operations Larnaca Airport duty manager, added that the early morning British Airways flight from Heathrow arrived an hour late while the CY Airways flight that was meant to arrive at 4.10pm was still delayed at 6pm. Due to the delayed arrival of the CY airways flight into Larnaca, the usual 10pm flight out of Heathrow would have in turn suffered delays.
By yesterday afternoon the 4.15pm BA flight to London Heathrow had been rescheduled for 6pm. But worsening weather conditions in Britain meant flights were subject to further cancellations and long delays.
Twenty four-year-old student Natasha Theodotou is meant to be flying home for Christmas out of Heathrow this morning on a British Airways flight. “I’m really worried because my flight was saying ‘operating’ on the BA website about an hour ago but now it’s saying ‘awaiting update’,” Theodotou said last night. “Getting to the airport is my first worry to be honest because I would have to leave the house at five in the morning,” she said. “My dad is meant to be taking me by car which isn’t looking too promising at the moment considering how icy the roads will be at that time.”
“I’m flying back to Cyprus on Christmas Eve to arrive on Christmas morning if the weather allows,” said Natasha’s sister 26-year-old Michelle Theodotou, a recently graduated student.
She said the initial attraction of the snowy weather had well and truly worn off. “I’m over the snow,” she said.
Robert Hands, who has two children abroad studying, one at Sterling and one at Newcastle, was equally worried about how bad the weather was going to be but felt relieved that yesterday they managed to get on their easyJet flight from Edinburgh to Paphos. “We’ve been checking the news and websites for a while now, knowing that my children were flying here soon,” said Hands. “It’s stressful because you don’t know what’s going to happen over night,” he added.
Germany’s biggest airline Lufthansa yesterday also announced the cancellation of domestic and European flights to and from Frankfurt airport due to “an expected worsening of weather conditions”. It said long-range flights were not affected.
For flight information check the website at www.cyprusairports.com.cy or call 24-816400 to find out about flights from both Paphos and Larnaca.
