Fog disrupts London's Heathrow airport again

LONDON, Dec 22 (Reuters) London travellers struggling to get home for Christmas faced another day of chaos today, with some 350 flights cancelled at Heathrow airport for a second day due to a thick blanket of fog.

Weather forecasters offered little hope of visibility improving at Heathrow until Christmas eve day on Sunday.

''The weather across much of the UK is regrettably showing little sign of improvement,'' said Geoff Want, director of ground operations for British Airways, which cancelled all Heathrow domestic flights.

Boeing 747 Jumbo jets were put on some European routes to clear a backlog of stranded passengers and the airline said it was offering customers ''the three Rs - rebooking, rerouting and refunds''.

Yesterday, 350 flights were cancelled and a similar number were stopped on Friday, said a spokesman for airport operator BAA, which runs Heathrow and six other British airports.

''It is the world's busiest international airport but we have only two runways ... We have fundamental capacity constraints,'' BAA spokesman Simon Baugh told BBC radio.

In below freezing conditions, passengers were offered hot drinks, woolly hats and blankets by staff.

''Christmas has been cancelled,'' complained disgruntled passenger David Page.

Father Christmas tried to offer some cheer to demoralised passengers with three red and white suited Santas despatched to raise morale at overcrowded terminals.

''We understand that Christmas is an extremely important time of year for our customers and their families and we are working around the clock to give every assistance possible,'' Want said.

Dan McKenzie, 35, spent his birthday at Heathrow trying to get a 40-minute flight to Belfast after a San Francisco holiday.

''The holiday memories have evaporated,'' the decorator said.

''It is not a good advert for one of the biggest airports in the world.'' Despite air traffic control rules which slowed landings and take-offs by 50 per cent, a BA spokesman said the airline managed to get 80 per cent of passengers to their destinations yesterday, some going by minibuses or coaches. BA has booked 5,000 hotel rooms over the past two nights to accommodate others.

The fog chaos and loss of revenue from hundreds of cancelled flights is expected to cost BA and other carriers millions of pounds.

BA published quarterly earnings last month which showed it cost the airline 100 million pounds after security was tightened in the wake of what police in August said was a plot to blow up airliners.

Reuters SP VV1920