Fog snarls flights in London, western Europe

Fog was creating major headaches for air travelers in Europe on Monday. London’s busy Heathrow and Gatwick airports were the hardest hit, though problems were being reported at a number of airports in western Europe.

At Heathrow, more than 300 flights – about a third of the day’s schedule – had been delayed and another about 90 canceled as of 8 a.m. ET (1 p.m. London time), according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. The cancellations represented about 7% of the day’s schedule at Heathrow.

Gatwick, London’s second-busiest airport, has a similar percentage of flights disrupted there. Major disruptions also were being felt by fliers at London’s close-to-downtown City Airport.

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British Airways warned fliers of Monday disruptions “at many UK airports," issuing a flexible rebooking policy for customers with short-haul flights at Heathrow and City airports.

The poor visibility also was affecting other airports across the United Kingdom, Ireland and western Europe -- though those back-ups were less severe than in London.

In Amsterdam, FlightAware calculated that about 4% of the day’s flights had been canceled and another 10% delayed as of 8:30 a.m. ET (2:30 p.m. local time). The airport is a major hub for Dutch carrier KLM, which also is a partner of Delta Air Lines. Delta warned its customers the fog may impact Amsterdam travel. Delta also issued a flexible rebooking policy for fliers ticketed to fly through the Dutch capital on Monday.

Paris Charles de Gaulle, Paris Orly, Manchester, Dublin, Belfast and Geneva were among other European airports where delays and cancellations were higher than normal Monday, according to FlightAware. Still, none of those airports were experiencing problems on the scale of what was being seen at the London airports.

And, by early afternoon European time, there were signs of improvements being reported by at least one airport. “Fog is clearing here … flights running on time,” England’s Birmingham Airport said via Twitter at 7:36 a.m. ET (12:36 p.m. local time).

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