Manchester and London airports affected as Met Office issues severe weather warning for parts of England and Wales

Flights have been disrupted for thousands of airline passengers as freezing fog hit the UK just days before Christmas.

A severe weather warning was issued by the Met Office covering southern and central England and some eastern parts of Wales until noon on Tuesday.

At Heathrow, British Airways cancelled at least 49 departing and 49 arriving flights.

The carrier said: “Forecast fog and freezing conditions across parts of southern England and northern Europe meant a slight reduction in our short-haul flight schedule this morning.

“We know that this is an important time for many families to travel and we are very sorry for the disruption to some of our customers’ journeys.”

A number of flights at Gatwick and London City airports were also cancelled or delayed due to the weather.

Passengers due to fly to or from European destinations on Tuesday were able to change their travel plans and re-book on to alternative flights up until Friday.

Heathrow said a “small number of flights” were cancelled in advance due to poor visibility at the west London hub.

A spokeswoman said this decision was made in partnership with Nats, the air traffic control provider, “as a last resort to ensure safety”.

She went on: “Regrettably, this may result in some passengers experiencing disruption to their journeys today and we advise they check flight status with airlines before travelling to the airport.

“As always, Heathrow’s top priority is the safety of our passengers and we apologise to those whose travel may be impacted by the weather.”

No flights were able to take off or land at Manchester airport for several hours on Monday as one runway was shut due to fog and another was closed for emergency maintenance.

Dozens of flights were cancelled or delayed.

Network Rail reported that there were no issues due to fog.