Holiday travel plans grounded by storm

Firth, 80, and her brother came to Boston for her aunt’s 90th birthday party and were due to fly out of Logan last Sunday.

Firth is glad she’ll be with her children and grandchildren on Christmas, but getting the tickets caused other problems. The huge purchase raised suspicions, she said, and “The bank has now stopped my credit card.’’

Yesterday, American Airlines, British Airways, and Virgin Atlantic together cut nine inbound and outbound flights between Logan and Heathrow Airport in London, which is operating only about a third of its scheduled flights through tomorrow. Lufthansa scrapped an inbound and outbound flight between Boston and Frankfurt Airport; and Aer Lingus canceled an inbound and outbound flight between Logan and Dublin Airport, which was shut down.

British Airways flights between Heath row and Logan are being canceled through the end of the week, said spokesman John Lampl: one inbound to Logan and two outbound to Heathrow today, and one each way on Thursday and Friday.

Only five inches of snow fell in London, but Heathrow isn’t properly equipped to deal with it, Lampl said.

“Boston, you get two feet of snow and everything’s running,’’ he said. “This is the second year in a row this has happened [at Heathrow]. And today is only the first day of winter.’’

Heathrow is among the world’s busiest airports, and cancellations at one of the year’s busiest travel periods provoked anger from hundreds of thousands of affected travelers.

As a result, British Prime Minister David Cameron offered to put troops on snow-clearing duty at Heathrow, which airport authorities declined.

Europe’s top transport official, meanwhile, threatened tougher regulation of airports unable to cope with unusually wintry weather.

Aviation consultant Chris Yates said that after many years without heavy snowfall, short-term thinking and underinvestment had left Heathrow and dozens of other airports across Britain and Ireland without enough equipment or personnel to cope with big storms.

“They have concluded they don’t need snow clearance equipment, so we don’t have the capability when bad weather comes in,’’ he said.

Airport operators in Helsinki, Stockholm, and other snowy climes have the equipment and manpower to clear runways within 30 minutes and to remove ice and snow from aircraft stands quickly, he said, while Heathrow lags far behind.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Katie Johnston Chase can be reached at johnstonchase@globe.com.