UNITED KINGDOM: Thousands of travellers struggling to get home for Christmas face another day of chaos as London's Heathrow airport is blanketed in fog

Thousands of travellers struggling to get home for Christmas faced another day of chaos and frustration on Friday (December 22) as London's Heathrow airport was blanketed in fog. Geoff Want, director of ground operations for British Airways, explained that the airline has cancelled all domestic flights until the weather improves. Boeing 747 Jumbo jets are being put on some European routes to try and deal with the backlog. Some travellers bound for international destinations were optimistic that they would make it home in time. "Today's been quite okay, I think. I don't know, this flight seems to be leaving so I'm quite confident I will be getting home for Christmas," a young woman en route to Sweden told Reuters Television. Others were more sceptical. "We discovered last night that our flight was cancelled, down to London today. So we set off at two this morning to come here. And apparently this queue is like four hours. So we hope we get to Dubai sometime," another traveller said. On Thursday, 350 flights were cancelled and a similar number will be stopped on Friday, said a spokesman for airport operator BAA, which runs Heathrow and six other airports in Britain. British Airways had to despatch more than 3,000 passengers on coaches across Britain as the airport was gripped by fog for a third day running. In below freezing temperatures, passengers were offered hot drinks, woolly hats and blankets by airline staff which hope to run a full programme of long haul flights even if there will be some delays.

ITN Source | December 22, 2006

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