Despite continued air travel chaos to London Heathrow, the Gulf’s airlines are planning to offer a full schedule of services to the UK airport on Tuesday.
However, Heathrow currently only has one runway open, and fresh snow forecast for Europe means that there could be further delays and cancellations, the airport said this morning.
“Passengers should anticipate further delays and cancellations in the following days and potentially beyond Christmas Day,” said the British Airports Authority (BAA), the agency that overlooks Heathrow, in a company statement.
Passengers whose flights have already been cancelled may not find new seats until the new year, the agency warned.
Emirates Airline is scheduled to provide four flights to Heathrow today, two of which have already left, while neighbouring carrier Qatar Airways also plans to offer four services.
Etihad Airways will offer three services to Heathrow, while Gulf Air, Kuwait Airways and Oman Air are all planning to provide one flight each.
However, according to the British Airways website, the airline has cancelled flight BA0104 from Dubai, which was scheduled to leave the UAE today.
The British flag-carrier will fly two other services from Dubai, plus one from Muscat/Abu Dhabi, and one from Kuwait.
Virgin Atlantic is also planning to offer one Dubai-Heathrow service today.
Gatwick on Tuesday morning reopened its runway after heavy snowfall the previous evening grounded planes. However, the airport warned that future cancellations are “inevitable”.
“Passengers should expect further disruption today… and for the rest of this week,” it said in a statement.
At Heathrow, the centre of the flights chaos, an estimated 100 aircraft remain on their stands forcing airlines to cancel hundreds of flights.
Last night, BAA shut down Terminals 1 and 3 at the airport to dissuade the thousands of passengers waiting at the airport and hoping to board delayed flights.
In France, an estimated 30 percent of flights at Charles de Gaulle and Orly have been cancelled, while Brussels yesterday said it would ground all departing flights until Tuesday due to a lack of de-icing fluid for planes.
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