Dozens of flights cancelled, delayed

TRANSPORT:DOZENS OF flights to and from Irish airports were cancelled or delayed yesterday due to snow in the UK.

At one stage yesterday, the runways at London Gatwick, Birmingham, London City and Cardiff airports were all closed.

The main cancellations in Ireland were caused by the closure of the runway at London Gatwick airport which serves flights to and from Cork, Knock, Dublin and Shannon. Gatwick did not open until about 5pm with some 10 Irish flights cancelled.

Although London’s Heathrow airport remained open, there were some weather-related cancellations, including at least three Aer Lingus flights from the airport.

There were also cancellations of some flights in and out of Ireland West Knock Airport yesterday.

Three Ryanair flights from the UK to Knock were diverted to Shannon and one Aer Arann flight from Dublin to Knock was cancelled.

Siobhán Moore of the Dublin Airport Authority said the schedule had been “somewhat affected” by the closure of UK airports and a two-day French air traffic control strike.

Bus services continued to be disrupted by difficult conditions yesterday. Bus Éireann said that overnight frost expected last night may disrupt services further today.

Some Bus Éireann services in Cork county were disrupted yesterday due to icy conditions.

Cancellations also took place on routes between Cork and Tralee, Athlone, Waterford and Dublin.

However, the vast majority of services were operating but with some delays.