Fog paralyses London's Heathrow airport again

London, Dec 22: Thousands of travellers struggling to get home for Christmas faced another day of chaos and frustration today as London's Heathrow airport was blanketed in fog.

''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 has cancelled all domestic flights.

Boeing 747 Jumbo jets are being put on some European routes to try and deal with the backlog.

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

''It is the world's busiest international airport but we have only two runways. If you compare with our main competitors in Europe, Frankfurt has three, Paris has four and Amsterdam has five. We have fundamental capacity constraints,'' BAA spokesman Simon Baugh told BBC radio today.

British Airways had to despatch more than 3,000 passengers on coaches across Britain as the airport was gripped by fog for a third day running.

In below freezing conditions, passengers were offered hot drinks, woolly hats and blankets by airline staff which hope to run a full programme of long haul flights even if there will be some delays.

''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.

It is the second time Dariusz Cichy from Poland has been caught up in severe delays at London's airports which faced major disruption in August after police foiled what they said was a plot to blow up transatlantic airlines.

The August alerts left the 33-year-old farm worker trapped at Gatwick airport, trying to get home to Warsaw.

This latest delay at Heathrow is worse, he said.

''This one is much longer. It is a disaster.'' Dan McKenzie, 35, spent his birthday at Heathrow on Wednesday trying to get a 40-minute flight to Belfast following a holiday in San Francisco.

''I feel the holiday memories have evaporated,'' the decorator said. ''It is not a good advert for one of the biggest airports in the world.''

Reuters