London City Airport experienced significant disruption on Tuesday morning as freezing fog descended on the capital, leading to multiple flight cancellations and diversions. The airport advised passengers to check with their airlines before travelling, warning that flights could be cancelled or delayed at short notice.
According to departure data from the airport's website, only four of the eleven flights scheduled before 9:10am took off, with the remainder cancelled. However, no cancellations were reported after mid-morning. The airport stated: "Due to adverse weather conditions, we are experiencing delays and cancellations. Please check with your airline before making your way to the airport."
The Met Office issued a yellow warning for fog covering a large area of England, including London and the South East, which remained in effect until 10am. It warned of "dense patches of fog" with visibility dropping to around 50 metres in some places. The warning noted that areas of fog were likely to cause travel delays on Tuesday morning, becoming more extensive overnight before slowly clearing through mid-morning.
The airport explained that fog and poor weather conditions force air traffic controllers to increase the gap between landing aircraft, reducing the number of planes an airport can handle. Additionally, fog can slow taxiing between the runway and terminal. As many commercial flights cruise at altitudes above five miles, they can be affected by different weather conditions than those on the ground.
