Proactive Investors - Freezing temperatures overnight led to dozens of flights being cancelled at Heathrow Airport, with British Airways (LON:ICAG) today alone scrapping 85 arrivals and departures to follow 70 weather-related cancellations on Sunday.
Airlines were warned on Sunday evening that services would have to be scaled back by around 15% due to the worsening weather conditions.
Before midday on Monday, some fifty flights in total had been axed at Heathrow as temperatures overnight dropped to minus 8c, a ten-year low at the airport according to meteorologists.
Fog was the main problem, with a weather warning issued for southeast England from last night until 11 am.
Temperatures are expected to plummet again tonight to below minus 6c in and around London,
BA, which has its base at Heathrow, was the worst affected but KLM, Lufthansa, Aer Lingus, Virgin Atlantic, United Airlines, SAS and Air France all cancelled flights.
In a statement, British Airways, which is owned by IAG, blamed poor visibility for the cancellations, adding it had apologised to affected customers and was "doing everything we can to get them on their way as quickly as possible".
It advised passengers to check if their flight is still on and said refunds or vouchers for alternative flights would be given for cancelled journeys.
“Freezing fog forms a layer of thin ice on planes which will need to be de-iced”, weather experts added explaining the reasons for the delays..
Shares in IAG were unchanged at 162.7p.