UK weather: Gatwick and Heathrow airport cancel or delay dozens of flights in fog

There is a yellow warning in place for heavy rain and snow in parts of Scotland for Monday and New Year’s Eve on Tuesday.

Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations could face “significant disruption” from rain, with organisers warning audiences to “prepare for all weather, wrap up warm and double-check with your travel operator for the latest updates”.

Kiera Quayle, from Colchester, Essex, was due to fly from Isle of Man Airport to London Gatwick on Friday evening with her husband after visiting his family – but their flight was delayed by three hours before eventually being cancelled at around 10pm, with their next available journey on Sunday.

“Our five days has turned to seven, it looks like,” Ms Quayle, 30, said.

“It’s frustrating and stressful but I overheard a few families who are now missing holidays and work who have it worse at this point.

“We’re frustrated about the lack of communication – we all knew the flight would likely be cancelled, but just putting it as delayed in an airport where the only food was crisps from the bar wasn’t fair.

“We are splitting our time between in-laws houses as people go back to work and their routines after Christmas – we’re trying not to impose too much at this point and we’re grateful we have places we can stay that aren’t hotels.”

Each airline should enable you to fill out an online form, but these are sometimes difficult to track down. The pages for three leading airlines are here:

Compensation must be paid by bank transfer (or cheque), except if the airline obtains the prior signed agreement of the passenger to pay with vouchers for future travel.

For example, an airline might offer a 30 per cent uplift if you accept vouchers that are valid for a year – so a choice between £350 in cash or £455-worth of flights.

If you are flying from a UK/EU airport or on a British/ European airline and are delayed in arrival by at least three hours, the presumption is that you are owed hundreds of pounds in compensation.

The payment depends on distance:

• Under 1,500km, for example London to Nice: £220 or €250
• 1,500-3,500km, such as Manchester-Malaga: £350 or €400
• Above 3,500km, eg Birmingham-Dubai: £520 or €600. If a long-haul arrival delay is between three and four hours, the compensation is halved.

The only way the airline can avoid paying out is by demonstrating “extraordinary circumstances” were responsible.

extraordinary circumstances refers to “political instability, meteorological conditions incompatible with the operation of the flight concerned, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings and strikes”.

For delays of under two hours you have no rights (unless a short delay in the UK triggers a missed connection and much later arrival at your final ticketed destination – see below).

For longer delays, the airline should provide refreshments as appropriate after a specified length of time. This applies regardless of the cause of the delay.

The time at which the duty of care kicks in depends on the distance you are flying:

• Short flights (up to 1,500km): refreshments after two hours.
• Mid-haul journeys (1,500 to 3,500km): three hours.
• Longer trips: four hours.

Note that if the airline believes providing the care would further delay the flight, it need not deliver.

If the delay extends overnight, the airline is obliged to find and pay for a hotel room. In practice, carriers often say, “too difficult”, and invite the passenger to book their own and reclaim later.

While this practice does not comply fully with the rules, aviation authorities tend to turn a blind eye to it.

On Saturday, 19 flights at Heathrow have been cancelled so far with another 455 delayed, while at Gatwick, 320 are delayed and 16 have been cancelled.

Senior forecaster Craig Snell said the situation should improve on Saturday night.

“Tonight, we should start to see a little bit more in the way of breeze developing, so that should start to disperse some of the poorer visibilities across the rest of the UK,” he said.

“So we might start to see some of the fog and low cloud begin to lift as the night goes on, but generally with plenty of cloud around we’re not really expecting any issues with frost or anything like that.”

On Sunday, south-east England could have a “dull start which is expected to brighten with highs of 12C predicted, he added.