More than 800 flights have been delayed at London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports on Saturday, and dozens have been cancelled, as a record-breaking heatwave gave way to severe thunderstorms, according to BBC News.
The storms developed overnight following what had been the hottest ever June temperature recorded in the UK, 37.3C in Suffolk on Friday. An amber warning for extreme heat remained in place until Sunday morning for parts of eastern and south-east England, even as the storms moved in from the south.
More than 400 flights arriving at or departing from Heathrow have been delayed so far Saturday, according to flight tracker FlightAware, with another 400 affected at Gatwick. Delays on some flights stretched to 11 hours. NATS, the UK's air traffic control service, said weather disruption was expected to continue through the rest of the day after forecasted severe weather across south-east England.
Europe-wide aviation agency Eurocontrol said a broad area of hot, unstable air stretching from northern Spain to southern Sweden was likely to see further storm-cloud development overnight. The agency added there was a large degree of uncertainty over when and where the storms would develop. Flights have had to avoid areas with turbulent conditions, creating a knock-on effect on schedules across the region.
Heathrow's live arrival board showed a British Airways flight from Santiago, Chile that was due to land at 10:00 BST but was not expected to arrive until 21:00. Gatwick told BBC News that temporary air traffic control restrictions had been put in place. Easyjet apologised for the disruption.
Passenger Adam Joseph, 29, told BBC News he had been stranded at Venice airport in Italy without air conditioning because his flight to Gatwick had been delayed by four hours and counting. He was due to depart Venice at 12:30 local time but said the plane had not yet left London on its outbound leg.
"We could've stayed at the hotel for another three to four hours," Joseph said.
He added that despite the length of the delay, passengers had been told they would not be entitled to compensation because it was caused by an air traffic control restriction.
