Winter storms disrupt Logan-to-London flights

Delays likely to linger in busy travel week

December 21, 2010|Katie Johnston Chase, Globe Staff

The severe winter storms blanketing parts of Europe with snow and ice are having a ripple effect on local holiday travel this week as airlines cancel flights between London and Logan International Airport.

All but a few of the 12 daily Logan and Heathrow Airport arrivals and departures were canceled Saturday and Sunday, and more were scrapped yesterday and today as severe weather conditions continue to hobble Europe’s busiest airport.

American Airlines canceled its four daily flights between Boston and London yesterday and anticipated having just one flight in and out today; British Airways dropped one of its three daily departures yesterday, and expects to cancel one today. Virgin Atlantic was operating about half its flights out of Heathrow yesterday, with delays.

Even those travelers who did get out of Boston over the weekend found it to be rough going. A British Airways flight that took off Saturday morning was diverted to Newcastle, England, and passengers had to be bused nearly 300 miles into London.

Delays and cancellations at Heathrow will endure at least through tomorrow, and more heavy snow is expected to fall in London later in the week. “It’s sort of day by day,’’ said John Lampl, spokesman for British Airways.

Flights out of Logan have not been disrupted by weather in other major European cities, including Paris, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam, said a spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which operates the airport.

Logan officials also said they aren’t anticipating any disruptions related to the controversial full body scanners and enhanced pat-downs that the Transportation Security Administration put into place this year. An informally organized national “opt-out’’ protest the day before Thanksgiving — in which travelers were urged to ask for a more time-consuming pat-down instead of a scan to draw attention to the more invasive security measures — did not produce any major delays in Boston or elsewhere.

The busiest Christmas week travel days at Logan are anticipated to be today and Thursday, with more than 100,000 passengers expected to pass through the airport on each of those days. Planes are full, officials said, but the crush won’t be quite as severe as it was during Thanksgiving week. That is, of course, if the weather in Massachusetts cooperates — current extended forecasts call for the possibility of snow late Christmas night and Sunday.

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