Storm Ciara: Travel chaos as hundreds of flights cancelled due to gale-force winds

Flooding and flying trampolines among the causes of train delays, while dozens of flights are diverting because of crosswinds

Storm Ciara is wreaking havoc on travel to, from and within the UK by air, rail and sea.

Many tens of thousands of airline passengers have had their flights cancelled. London Heathrow airport, the busiest in Europe, is worst affected with around 300 arrivals and departures grounded.

British Airways preemptively cancelled around 140 flights because of landing and take-off restrictions, while Virgin Atlantic grounded a dozen long-haul departures and arrivals.

But overnight many more cancellations took place – with American Airlines grounding a swathe of flights from Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Raleigh Durham.

Delta’s arrivals from Atlanta and Minneapolis, and Air Canada from Ottawa and Toronto, did not operate.

Dozens of short-notice cancellations and diversions have taken place to and from Gatwick.

The inbound WestJet flight from Toronto to Gatwick was diverted to Glasgow.

The leading airline at Gatwick, easyJet, has cancelled flights to Amsterdam, Basel, Geneva, Glasgow, Hamburg, Lisbon, Lyon and other destinations.

Among longer European services, cancellations include Air Malta to Malta and Turkish Airlines to Istanbul.

Norwegian has grounded a number of short-haul flights but its long-haul routes appear to be running a near-normal service.

Luton is seeing widespread cancellations – with easyJet grounding 40 flights to and from its home base.

Dozens of flights to the Bedfordshire airport are diverting because of crosswinds. Most are on Wizz Air. Many have landed at Stansted, and some at Gatwick, but others have diverted to Doncaster-Sheffield and Birmingham airports.

At Stansted, easyJet flights to Edinburgh and Munich have been cancelled, along with the Air Moldova flight to Chisinau.

Dozens of flights to and from Birmingham airport are grounded, including Air France from Paris, Austrian Airlines from Vienna, KLM from Amsterdam, and Lufthansa from Frankfurt and Munich.

An early Ryanair service from Dublin to Birmingham was diverted to Manchester, and another from Madrid landed at Liverpool.

At Bristol, easyJet has made several cancellations, including flights to Amsterdam, Belfast, Glasgow and Newcastle.

Passengers whose flights are cancelled are entitled to be flown on the next available service, even if it is on a rival airline, and to be given meals and accommodation as necessary until they can depart. But compensation under the European air passengers’ rights rules is not payable because the airlines are not responsible.

Rail services are severely disrupted across Britain, on a day when millions would normally be travelling by train. Passengers who decide to take their chances are warned: “Network Rail has advised all passengers not to travel today.

“Most services will meet delays, cancellations and disruption today.

“Any arrival times are only approximate due to speed restrictions.”

The West Coast main line is blocked at Oxenholme in Cumbria, with no services currently running north of Preston.

Avanti, which runs services on the line from Scotland, northwest England and the West Midlands to London Euston, tweeted: “Journey times will be DOUBLED, please avoid travel unless absolutely necessary.”

On the East Coast main line from Edinburgh, Newcastle and Yorkshire to London King’s Cross, LNER is running an hourly slow service between the Scottish and English capitals, with the journey time doubled to around eight hours.

Some journeys are being hampered by planned engineering work. East Midlands Railway from Sheffield via Derby and Leicester to London would normally provide an alternative route to both the East Coast and West Coast main lines. But work between Market Harborough and Bedford is extending journey times even further.

Trampolines being blown onto lines temporarily halted services on at least two Southeastern routes in Kent.

Train crew shortage has also been blamed for some delays.

Ferry crossings between Dover and France have been halted, with P&O Ferries saying: “Due to strong winds all services at the Port of Dover are currently suspended. We will keep everyone updated once we resume service. We’re very sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.”

The Port of Dover is warning: “Sea conditions are very rough with southwest gale force 8 to storm 10.”