Airport runway closes after strong winds wreak havoc on Christmas travel

The Belfast Airport runway has been shut after a flight from Edinburgh was forced to make a ‘hard landing’ following strong winds.

The whole of Northern Ireland and Scotland and parts of western England have been battered by gale force winds in places today after a Met Office yellow weather warning.

One of the affected flights was the Aer Lingus flight EA701P operated by Emerald Airlines which made a hard landing at Belfast this afternoon.

A spokesperson for Belfast Airport said: ‘At around 16:00 today, Sunday December 22, an Aer Lingus regional flight, operated by Emerald Airlines, had an incident on landing at Belfast City Airport.

‘This was a positioning fight with no passengers but four crew members on board.

‘The airport’s emergency procedures were enacted.

‘The runway is currently closed and will be for the rest of the day. Passengers are asked to contact their airline.’

Northern has axed several train services today due to a shortage of train crews across the network.

Several services in the North West have been suspended. Passengers may be eligible for compensation or delay repay so it is worth keeping note of your travel times and checking with Northern.

The disruption comes as thousands of passengers are travelling ahead of Christmas.

The following services are running but they have ‘large gaps,’ according to National Rail.

• Blackpool North – York: reduced early / late services
• Blackpool North – Liverpool Lime Street: trains will run between Wigan North Western and Liverpool Lime Street only
• Manchester Oxford Road – Liverpool Lime Street
• Manchester Piccadilly – Buxton
• Manchester Piccadilly – Sheffield
• Blackburn – Manchester Victoria via Todmorden / Bolton
• Liverpool Lime Street- Wigan: early finishing and later starting trains
• Manchester Victoria – Leeds: late services cancelled

Here are the routes where a limited rail replacement service is running.

• Preston and Colne
• Wigan North Western and Preston (Lancashire)
• Lancaster and Morecambe / Heysham Port
• Stockport and Chester
• Stockport and Crewe
• Stockport and Stoke-on-Trent
• Blackburn and Clitheroe
• Oxenholme Lake District and Windermere
• Blackpool South and Preston (Lancashire)

Christmas traffic at Dartford Crossing is experiencing some delays after a stalled vehicle.

Traffic appears to be slow clockwise on the Queen Elizabeth II bridge on the M25.

A signalling system fault is wreaking havoc on services to and from London Paddington, including on Heathrow trains.

It means trains could be cancelled, delayed by up to 20 minutes or revised, with disruption expected until 5pm.

Elizabeth line, Great Wester Railway and Heathrow Express trains are affected, but here are all the disrupted routes.

• Elizabeth line services between Abbey Wood and Heathrow Terminal 4 / Reading, between Shenfield and Heathrow Terminal 5, also between Abbey Wood / Gidea Park / Shenfield and London Paddington

• Great Western Railway services to / from London Paddington

• Heathrow Express services between London Paddington and Heathrow Terminal 5

The A15 Humber Bridge in East Riding, Yorkshire is closed in both directions to ‘high sided and vulnerable vehicles’ due to strong winds, according to National Highways.

For alternative route visit the National Highways website.

The Metropolitan line is currently part suspended, with no service between Wembley Park and Aldgate while a faulty train is fixed at Finchley Road.

There are also severe delays on the Central line between Hainault and Woodford due to train cancellations. There is a good service on the rest of the line.

Strong winds has led to several ferries crossing the Irish Sea to be cancelled.

All services between Cairnryan in southwest Scotland and Northern Ireland have been cancelled until late on Sunday.

This includes P&O Ferries to Larne and Stena Line services to Belfast.

Stena Line told passengers: ‘If your sailing has been cancelled please do not arrive at the port for your original sailing, please amend your booking before travelling.’

It comes as the main crossing between Great Britain and Ireland – Holyhead in Wales to Dublin, remains closed due to damage caused to Holyhead’s port during Storm Darragh.

The closure, set to remain in place until at least mid-January, has meant other Irish Sea ferry services are currently heavily booked.

All lines have now reopened on the Stansted Express line following an earlier points failure.

However, Greater Anglia, which operates the line, said trains ‘may continue to be cancelled, severely delayed by up to 60 minutes or revised’ and ‘major disruption is expected until 12.00.’

Limited replacement buses will be running between Bishops Stortford and Stansted Airport.

Advance purchase tickets holders will be allowed to travel on earlier or later trains if their booked service is cancelled.

Routes affected:

• Stansted Express between London Liverpool Street and Stansted Airport
• Stansted Airport – Norwich

ScotRail says severe weather is affecting a number of its routes.

Trains may be cancelled, delayed by up to 30 minutes or revised, it explained.

The following routes currently have speed restrictions in place:

• Between Glasgow Queen Street and Oban/Mallaig (until around 10am)
• Between Inverness and Wick/Kyle of Lochalsh (until around 4pm)
• Between Stranraer and Ayr (until around 9pm)
• Between Ayr/Largs and Glasgow Central (until around 6pm)

All Stansted Express trains have been cancelled until 11am today due to a points failure, it’s been announced.

Trains running both to and from Stansted Airport in Essex have been affected.

National Rail says: ‘A points failure at Stansted Airport means that all lines are blocked. Trains running to/from this station may be cancelled, delayed by up to 60 minutes, revised or diverted. Disruption is expected until 11am.

‘Trains are unable to run to/from Stansted Airport because of a points failure. Points allow trains to move from track to another, similar to changing lanes in a car or using a slip road.

‘Stansted Express trains will run as far as Bishops Stortford. Trains from Norwich and Cambridge will be diverted to Bishops Stortford.

‘Limited accessible replacement buses will be running between Bishops Stortford and Stansted Airport.’

There is currently no service between Rayners Lane and Uxbridge on the Piccadilly line due a shortage of trains while damage caused by ‘leaf fall’ is fixed, according to TFL. This has caused severe delays on the rest of the line.

On the DLR there is no service between Shadwell and Bank until Monday, and between Prince Regent and Beckton until Tuesday.

On the London Overground, there is no service on the Mildmay line between Willesden Junction and Clapham Junction until noon.

There is a reduced service on the Elizabeth line between Paddington and Heathrow/Maidenhead.

At least 15,000 passengers have had their travel plans scuppered after Heathrow Airport cancelled more than 100 flights this weekend.

In addition to British Airways, other airlines affected include Aer Lingus (Dublin), Eurowings (Cologne), Iberia (Madrid), KLM (Amsterdam), Lufthansa (Frankfurt), SAS (Oslo), Swiss (Zurich), TAP (Lisbon), Turkish Airlines (Istanbul), Virgin Atlantic (Miami).

British Airways said in a statement: ‘Due to adverse weather this weekend, restrictions have been put on the number of flights able to take off and land at Heathrow and therefore we’ve had to make a small number of cancellations.

‘We’re offering free flight changes for those customers booked on short-haul services who don’t wish to travel this weekend, and we will be offering rebooking and refund options as always to those whose journeys are disrupted as a result of the restrictions.’

Here’s a map showing which parts of the UK have a yellow weather warning today, with high winds forecast.

The Met Office said today is set to be ‘widely windy with gales, severe in the north and west’.

Frequent showers are forecast for the northwest, ‘heavy with hail and providing snow over hills before gradually fading later’.

There will be sunny spells in between, it added, but feeling very cold in the strong winds.