Heathrow airport hit by mass flight cancellations as freezing fog sparks travel chaos for thousands

Thousands of Britons are facing chaos at Heathrow airport today, with mass flight cancellations due to freeing fog.

More than 12,000 British Airways passengers are impacted by more than 80 flights which have been grounded.

With temperatures plunging as low as -8 and severe fog, the "flow rate" of arrivals has been dropped for safety purposes.

Flights to Amsterdam, Lyon and Barcelona are among those cancelled.

A British Airways spokesperson said: “Like other airlines, our schedule has been affected today due to fog experienced across London.

“We apologise to customers and are doing everything we can to get them on their way as quickly as possible.

“We advise customers to check ba.com for the latest flight information.”

Overnight the Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for fog over west London and parts of the East of England.

A Met Office fog warning is in place
PA Graphics/Press Association Images

A number of BA flights are impacted by the weather conditions
Steve Parsons

It said that freeing fog will create "difficult" conditions and "could cause travel delays in some areas on Monday".

Other UK airports including Luton and Robin Hood Doncaster-Sheffield also fall within the perimeter of the Met Office warning.

Temperatures will hit a maximum of 5C in the capital today, according to forecasts, before dropping as low as -6 again tonight.

Today is the second day in a row that weather conditions has caused large cancellations at Heathrow.

On Sunday at least 70 British Airways flights were cancelled.