Heathrow and London City Airport flights disrupted by fog Published duration 12 December 2012

image caption Freezing fog descended on Heathrow Airport causing huge disruption

Thick fog and ice have caused disruption to flights in and out of some airports.

At London's Heathrow Airport, 189 flights were cancelled with many more delayed throughout Wednesday.

More than 20 flights were cancelled at London City Airport with disruption due to continue throughout the evening.

Forecasters have predicted patchy fog for Thursday morning which, while less likely to affect flights, could cause dangerous driving conditions.

According to Heathrow Airport's website, there are no planned cancellations for Thursday morning but passengers are advised to contact their airlines before travelling.

Knock-on effect

Earlier on Wednesday the Met Office issued a yellow warning of fog for parts of England, advising people of reduced visibility and the risk of disruption.

It said visibility would be less than 100m in the worst-affected areas.

It warned of dense and freezing fog across much of central, eastern and north-west England, as well as London.

Heathrow Airport began reporting flight cancellations on Tuesday evening.

Despite the fog lifting during the day, there were cancellations until about 19:00 GMT because of the knock-on effect on capacity.

Cancelled flights included those bound for Warsaw, Nice, Stockholm, Aberdeen and several German cities.

A handful of flights to Manchester and Newcastle on Wednesday night were also cancelled.

A spokesman explained that flights were cancelled because a longer interval was required between planes to land in fog.

Disruption elsewhere

Andrew, from East Sussex, was due to fly to Zurich at 07:20 but said he had been stuck on a plane at Heathrow.

He said: "The crew say delays are due to de-icing equipment breaking down at T5 and not the weather.

"Some people are getting off the plane because they're on day trips and it's just not worth them going now."

A British Airways spokeswoman earlier said: "Our de-icing procedures are currently working well, however we did experience some delays to the process this morning due to the severity of ice inside the engines of our aircraft that were parked at Heathrow overnight.

image caption Hundreds of passengers have been disrupted

"Safety is always our over-riding priority and we have to ensure that our aircraft are completely free of ice before they depart."

She apologised to passengers on cancelled flights and said they were being offered the chance to rebook to a later date or claim a refund.

Andy Robinson, duty manager at Newcastle Airport which was affected by the problem at Heathrow, said: "Most passengers from last night's cancelled flight either got trains or taxis down to London or have been rebooked on alternative flights."

Flights from Leeds Bradford Airport have also been affected by the weather.