Poltics
Thousands of people in the UK are facing a Christmas travel nightmare after strong winds led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights and ferries.
A Met Office yellow weather warning was in place until 9pm on Sunday from John o’Groats to Land’s End, with gusts of up to 60mph widespread and some as strong as 70mph on hills and around exposed coasts.
Gusts of 82mph, the strongest of the weekend, were recorded at Kirkwall on Orkney and at South Uist in the Outer Hebrides.
More than 100 flights at Heathrow were cancelled and passengers were advised to check the situation before they travel. An airport spokesperson said: “We are really aware this is right before Christmas. This is purely for safety that we have had to do this.”
Most of the cancellations were British Airways flights. The airline said it was offering free flight changes to passengers on short-haul services who did not want to travel at the weekend.
A spokesperson said: “While the vast majority of our customers will travel as planned, our teams are working hard to help those who have been affected get their travel plans back on track at this important time of year.”
A runway was closed at Belfast City Airport after an Aer Lingus plane arriving from Edinburgh suffered a hard landing. No passengers were on board.
Ferries between Northern Ireland and Scotland were cancelled on Sunday, including P&O services between Larne and Cairnyran and Stena Lines between Belfast and Cairnyran.
Stefan Donnelly, a 35-year-old marketing manager, travelled from London to Scotland only to discover via social media that his Saturday night crossing to Larne was cancelled.
“There wasn’t any communication from P&O, I didn’t get an email or a text message or anything,” he said. “I was on the phone for about an hour and a half this morning but I eventually got through to someone.”
He said he had booked into a hotel in Ayr and was hoping to travel on the 8pm service on Sunday.
The cancellations come on top of major problems caused by the closure of one of Britain’s busiest ports, Holyhead in Anglesey, after damage caused a fortnight ago by Storm Darragh. The port had been due to reopen on 20 December but that date has been changed to 15 January.
CalMac, which operates ferry services on Scotland’s west coast, said 29 of its 30 routes were either cancelled or affected by disruption on Sunday.
Loganair flights from Glasgow to Barra, the Isle of Lewis and Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides and to Islay and Tiree in the Inner Hebrides were cancelled on Sunday.
The AA predicted there would be 21.3 million drivers on UK roads on Sunday. That was slightly fewer than the 23.7 million on Friday, which was billed as the busiest day on the roads since the group’s records began in 2010.
A spokesperson said: “If the congestion wasn’t enough of a headache, the inclement weather could create the perfect storm. We advise those heading out to allow extra time to travel and increase the distance between themselves and other road users.”
The RAC predicted the congestion hotspots would be on both directions of the M1 to Gatwick via the M25 and the M23; Liverpool to Chester on the M53; Oxford to the south coast via the A34 and the M3; the M25 to the south coast along the M3; and at the Taunton to Almondsbury interchange in Bristol heading down the M5.
Great Western Railway said the line between Crediton and Okehampton in Devon was closed on Sunday because of the weather.
On Sunday morning no trains were getting to Stansted airport in Essex because of a points failure. National Rail warned of “major disruption” until 11am.
The Met Office introduced a yellow warning for ice for north east Scotland from 9pm on Sunday to 10am on Monday.
Forecasters are predicting the winds should ease by Monday and there will be much more settled weather on Christmas Eve.
The chances of a white Christmas remain slim. Rebekah Hicks, a Met Office deputy chief meteorologist, said for most people it would be a “fairly cloudy, nondescript day”.
“Conditions on Christmas Day and Boxing Day look to be exceptionally mild for the time of year, especially in the north,” she said. “East and north-east Scotland, for example, could see overnight temperatures that are 10C above average on Christmas morning.”
