Stansted delays: Airport in 'meltdown' as thunderstorms ground flights and Eurotunnel hit by third day of chaos as millions jet off on summer breaks

Fiona Simpson28 July 2018

Brits jetting off on the first weekend of the summer holidays have been hit with major delays at Stansted Airport as travel chaos continues at the Eurotunnel in Folkestone.

Thunderstorms across Europe saw flights grounded and cancelled sparking chaos as the London travel hub on Friday night and into Saturday morning.

Airport bosses said air traffic control restrictions had been put in place due to "adverse weather" and advised passengers to check their flight before travelling to the airport.

Pictures posted on social media showed huge crowds of passengers crammed into walkways in the airport.

Other showed exhausted passengers sleeping on baggage carousels while many said families with young children had been forced to stay in the airport overnight.

Many complained of delays as long as nine hours as storms brought an end to searing heat in the UK and Europe .

Frustrated passengers took to Twitter to vent their anger as they waited for information about their flights.

Aaron Barriscale said: “Because of the insane backlog of people at bag drop we missed our flight and in our whole time queuing up, not one member of staff was anywhere to be seen. Disgraceful!”

Abigail Watt added: “Omg stansted airport is a MESS 1.5 hours to check in a bag and get to the gate and the planes in the wrong place.”

And Giulia Pizzagalli wrote: “My flight to Milan was supposed to leave at 4pm. I’m still waiting at #stansted airport and no one gives us any information. A 15mins thunderstorm shut down an entire airport. This is a joke.”

A spokesman for Stansted Airport said: "Yesterday’s air traffic control restrictions put in place due to the adverse weather in the UK did result in a number of flights being delayed and cancelled yesterday evening. This has the potential for some knock on delays today. There are also some air traffic restrictions in place across Europe due to storm activity.

"The airport is open and operating today but due to the above we still advise any passenger due to travel today to check the status of their flight with their airline. Some delays are likely, particularly due to the air traffic restrictions on route to Europe.

"The queues in the terminal were at airline ticket desks for passengers who decided not to go home but stay and try and re-book after their flights were cancelled. Those queues have gone down quite considerable and contained within the check-in areas. The security area is functioning as normal."

Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton airports were all also hit by delays.

Gatwick tweeted: “Adverse weather across Europe is affecting flights in and outbound from Gatwick Airport, this may result in delays and cancellations. Please contact your airline for specific flight information before you travel to the airport.”

Eurotunnel customers faced a third day of "shambolic" queues in Folkestone due to "extreme weather"

Faulty air-conditioning sparked delays and cancellations on Thursday creating a huge backlog of passengers.

Passengers faced two hour queues on Saturday morning, Eurotunnel said, advising travellers not to turn up early or late for their crossing.

Frustrated holidaymakers said they had faced much longer delays of around five hours.

Sarah Dodwell tweeted: "Queueing on the M20 for #Eurotunnel - how to ruin a one week big family holiday. Huge delays to check-in and departure, followed by a six-hour drive to come, with young children = 9 very tired people, before we have to do it all again coming back @LeShuttle."

Another woman called Nikki added: "We thought we would try the #eurotunnel instead of the ferry! Never again! Though being British I'm more upset the queue for getting a cup of tea in the terminal building looks to be 5 hours long as well."

William Lawson wrote: "Disgraceful lack of maintenance being blamed on unprecedented weather conditions. the most expensive way to cross the channel waited 1.5 hours for the barriers to even get on site. Now told to expect a 5 hour delay."

Eurotunnel said in a statement: "The current on site delay is approx 2 hours for low vehicles travelling on the double deck part of the shuttle and up to 5 hours for high vehicles. Our teams are working hard to improve the situation as quickly as possible. Additional staff on hand to provide information."

Thunderstorms battered the UK on Friday after months of soaring temperatures amid Britain’s longest heatwave in 40 years.

Millions of holidaymakers were set to fly from the UK for summer breaks on Friday on what was expected to be the busiest day of the season for airports.

Some 640 flights were expected to leave Stansted, while 940 were due to depart from Gatwick and 1,390 from Heathrow.

The Evening Standard has contacted Stansted Airport for comment.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in