Heathrow and Gatwick flight cancellations leave ‘40,000 stranded’ after thunderstorms

Severe thunderstorms have caused chaos at Britain’s busiest airports, delaying more than 900 flights and forcing dozens of cancellations.

More than 474 flights at London Heathrow and 439 at Gatwick were delayed, with some disruptions lasting for up to 11 hours, according to flight tracking data.

One British Airways service from Santiago, Chile, scheduled to arrive at Heathrow at 10am on Saturday (BST), was not expected to land until 9pm.

More than 200 flights on BA

Heathrow’s online departure board showed several flights to European destinations cancelled on Sunday morning, including British Airways planes to Milan, Rome and Florence.

Travel expert Simon Calder reports that in total, some 40,000 passengers have had flights cancelled this weekend.

Passengers have been advised to monitor flight status online before leaving for the airport.

In the holiday resort of Dalaman, Turkey, a British man said his easyJet flight was cancelled as he made his way to the airport at 10pm on Saturday.

Over 11 hours later, he said he had ‘absolutely no communication’ from the airline about a rescheduled flight.

Another passenger berated British Airways on X: ‘[Heathrow] Terminal 5 customer service must have 150 people waiting after delayed flights and missed connections!! 3 staff trying to sort this out, it’s sweltering and no air con or water to be had… Shocking to be honest!’

Another man on a cancelled flight from Gatwick to Rhodes added: ‘Five hours held on a plane with one refreshment offered. No clear answers, is it cancelled, do I have a flight on Monday? I need answers as the treatment has been DISGUSTING.’

The disruption highlights how rapidly extreme weather can affect airline operations – and upend travel plans – during the summer season.

It came as thunderstorms swept across the UK in the early hours of Saturday morning. 

Lightning strikes were seen across London, where they are suspected of starting a house fire.

And the chaos was not confined to the UK.

When one of Europe’s busiest aviation hubs runs into difficulty, the ripples quickly spread across multiple countries.

Flights departing from Spain, Italy, France, Germany and Greece for London often had to wait for revised departure slots before take-off.

European air traffic manager Eurocontrol identified the airspace between southeast England and northwest Europe as the worst affected, with further thunderstorm development possible across a broad swathe of Europe extending from northern Spain to southern Sweden.

Why planes can’t just fly through thunderstorms

Commercial aircraft are designed to operate safely in a wide range of weather conditions, but thunderstorms remain a major operational hazard.

Pilots routinely avoid intense storm cells because they may contain severe turbulence (which raises safety concerns for both passengers and crew) and wind shear, which makes taking off and landing riskier.

Storms also bring heavy rain, which reduces pilot visibility, hail, which can damage the aircraft, and powerful updrafts and downdrafts, which can make the plane more difficult to handle.

To avoid these risks, planes are rerouted by air traffic control.

This leads to longer flight paths and delays for later flights waiting on the arrival of the aircraft.