Guernsey airline Aurigny to add extra flights after fog problems
Some passengers to and from Alderney had been put on boats instead, the airline said.Guernsey Ports, which operates both Guernsey and Alderney Airports, said it "deeply regret[ed] the inconvenience caused".Guernsey Airport director Richard Thomasson said: "We know how important travel plans are at this time of year."Mr Thomasson said Ports was working with Aurigny to support stranded passengers, including those needing hotel accommodation.Aurigny said affected customers would receive emails from the airline or could check its website.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Stranded Brits in chaos after all flights leaving the UK were grounded
Thousands of holidaymakers are experiencing travel chaos after a 'technical issue' caused all flights out of the UK to be grounded. Several major airports were forced to halt operations due to a technical glitch at a National Air Traffic Services (NATS) control centre that left scores of planes stranded on the tarmac. NATS refused to rule out that hostile foreign action or hackers could be behind the incident, adding it was a 'radar-related issue' that was resolved by quickly switching to a back-up system. By the time the system was 'fully operational' again, thousands of passengers were already facing delays of up to five hours, while more than 150 flights to and from the UK were cancelled. Furious passengers were forced to put their holidays on hold after months of planning, while others feared missing out on their loved ones' weddings as a result of the unknown issue. Some desperate Brits are also now facing a nightmarish dilemma of sleeping in airports or splashing out hundreds of pounds on overnight accommodation after being 'dumped' by their airlines at home and overseas. One unhappy holidaymaker, who asked to remain anonymous, was among several Brits stranded in Croatia with his wife and two children on Wednesday night after easyJet cancelled their flight home. 'My wife and two children are now faced with sleeping in Dubrovnik airport along with several other families after easyJet cancelled our flight literally at the last minute,' the father-of-two told the Mail. 'They have been a disgrace and dumped dozens of families, many with young kids, with absolutely no support at all. No rearranged flight or accommodation - their staff made a swift exit after we were told to "download the easyJet app and use that". Needless to say, the app hasn't helped anyone.' He also echoed calls - made by Ryanair's chief operating officer Neal McMahon - for NATS' chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign following the outage. 'I never thought I'd agree with a Ryanair executive, but they are right about this one: NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe is utterly incompetent and needs to be fired - preferably out of a passenger jet engine,' the disgruntled Brit added. John Carr, a chiropodist from Stourbridge, was one of thousands of stranded Brits left in limbo after his flight from Heathrow to Norway was cancelled at the last minute. He and a group of friends were on their way to his brother's wedding, for which he is best man, when he found out after checking in that his flight was cancelled. The 35-year-old told said: 'I'm pretty gutted. We've got loads of stuff in the suitcases to set up the venue, because we're obviously flying to Norway. We've got the wedding rehearsal to do. It's quite stressful.' He said they did not receive any warning of the cancellation before it happened. We had no idea. There was nothing that the airport had said out on the speaker phones, or anything like that,' Mr Carr said. 'There was no warning from them or the airline that said it was cancelled. It's rubbish. There's nothing we can do. We don't know what we're going to do tonight in terms of accommodation. We have put our cars in special car compounds for the next six days.' His friend James Hedges, also from Stourbridge, said the group was in the departures lounge when they were told the flight was cancelled. 'We'd already checked in and gone through the security checks,' he said. Meanwhile Asha, 18, from Manchester, said the chaos had ruined her first holiday interrailing. She told the BBC her 3.10pm easyJet flight to Amsterdam had actually departed and was in the air for 50 minutes – before turning around. Hours later, she said she was still 'stuck' on the tarmac at the city's airport. Another passenger, Jane Ainsworth, told the Daily Mail her flight from Kos back to Birmingham had been forced to land in Brussels. Monica Clare, 68, from London, also had her hopes of watching her loved one walk down the isle thrown into disarray after her Aer Lingus flight from Heathrow to the Republic of Ireland was cancelled. She was flying out to attend the wedding in Limerick at 2.40pm today, but was stranded on the runway for almost three hours, after which passengers were told the flight was cancelled. 'The wedding is in Limerick on Friday but a hotel and hire car are awaiting us tonight, At 5.30pm the captain told us their shift had finished so Aer Lingus HQ in Dublin cancelled the flight,' she told The Telegraph. 'We were told to wait for a phone update about a flight tomorrow but others were told all flights tomorrow are already full. It's totally awful. We probably have to go home and wait to see when the next available flight is. It looks like we're missing the wedding.' Durand Meachem, 49, from North Carolina, was also expecting to fly out of Heathrow on Wednesday with his partner and two daughters to celebrate his 50th birthday. They had hoped to embark continue enjoying a 'trip of a lifetime', encompassing New York, London, Dubai and Thailand, before being caught up in the travel chaos. Chris Birch and his family faced similar turmoil after their flight out to attend a wedding was cancelled due to a shortage of cabin crew. 'At Gatwick for 5 hours for a delayed flight due to crew not being available. Now the flight and holiday is cancelled,' he wrote on X. 'We have been waiting another hour to collect luggage, that has still not appeared. No prams or escalators so parents carrying babies throughout. Our plane was on the tarmac, and luggage on board, we were simply waiting on a crew. We are going to a wedding and we were not given the option of a re-route. This breaks UK law.' Cockpit crews across the country were told the NATS centre in Swanwick, Southampton, had experienced a 'radar failure' at 2.30pm. 'We would appreciate your patience whilst we work through this unforeseen disruption,' they were told, according to The Sun. By 4.43pm, NATS said the issue was resolved but knock-delays will continue, with passengers advised to check with their airline. A statement read: 'Our engineers have now restored the system that was affected this afternoon. 'We are in the process of resuming normal operations in the London area. We continue to work closely with airline and airport customers to minimise disruption.' While the issue was ongoing, British Airways (BA) said the problem was 'affecting the vast majority of our flights', while Birmingham airport said 'departing flights from many UK airports have been suspended'. In an update, BA later said that the number of its inbound and outbound flights at Heathrow is restricted to a total of 32 per hour until 7.15pm before the flow rate returns to the usual level of 45 per hour. A total of 84 departures across all UK airports were cancelled as a result of the incident, while 71 arrivals into Britain were also scrapped, aviation analytics firm Cirium said at 10pm last night. Consumer organisation Which? advised that passengers who have suffered delays or cancellations could have rights to food or a hotel stay. 'If your flight is cancelled or delayed, you're unlikely to be owed compensation by the airline as the technical issue is considered an 'extraordinary circumstance' and out of the airline's control,' its deputy editor Naomi Leach said. 'However, you do have a right to food or a hotel stay depending on the length of the delay but be sure you keep the receipts as you will need to claim this back from the airline.' Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said continued disruption was expected following the restoration of Nats' systems and urged passengers to check with individual airports for advice. A spokesman from the Department for Transport said: 'While passengers should continue to check with individual airports for advice, Nats have confirmed their systems are now fully operational and flights are returning to normal. 'We are working closely with Nats to understand the cause of the technical issue and the implications for the resilience systems in place.' The Mail has contacted easyJet for comment.
Daily Mail
8 hours ago
- Daily Mail
'My wife and kids face a sleepless night on an airport floor': Stranded Brits tell of chaos after ALL flights leaving the UK were grounded - as mystery remains over cause of 'glitch'
Thousands of holidaymakers are experiencing travel chaos after a 'technical issue' caused all flights out of the UK to be temporarily grounded. Several major airports were forced to halt operations due to a technical glitch at a National Air Traffic Services (NATS) control centre that left dozens of planes stranded on the tarmac. NATS refused to rule out that hostile foreign action or hackers could be behind the incident, adding it was a 'radar-related issue' that was resolved by quickly switching to a back-up system. By the time the system was 'fully operational' again, thousands of passengers were already facing delays of up to five hours, while more than 150 flights to and from the UK were cancelled. Furious passengers were forced to put their holidays on hold after months of planning, while others feared missing out on their loved ones' weddings as a result of the unknown issue. Some desperate Brits are also now facing a nightmarish dilemma of sleeping in airports or splashing out hundreds of pounds on overnight accommodation after being 'dumped' by their airlines at home and overseas. One unhappy holidaymaker, who asked to remain anonymous, was among several Brits stranded in Croatia with his wife and two children on Wednesday night after easyJet cancelled their flight home from a family holiday. 'My wife and two children are now faced with sleeping in Dubrovnik airport along with several other families after easyJet cancelled our flight literally at the last minute,' the father-of-two told the Mail. 'They have been a disgrace and dumped dozens of families, many with young kids, with absolutely no support at all. 'No rearranged flight or accommodation - their staff made a swift exit after we were told to "download the easyJet app and use that". Needless to say, the app hasn't helped anyone.' He also echoed calls - made by Ryanair's chief operating officer Neal McMahon - for NATS' chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign following the outage. 'I never thought I'd agree with a Ryanair executive, but they are right about this one: NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe is utterly incompetent and needs to be fired - preferably out of a passenger jet engine,' the disgruntled Brit added. John Carr, a chiropodist from Stourbridge, was one of thousands of stranded Brits left in limbo after his flight from Heathrow to Norway was cancelled at the last minute. He and a group of friends were on their way to his brother's wedding, for which he is best man, when he found out after checking in that his flight was cancelled. The 35-year-old told said: 'I'm pretty gutted. We've got loads of stuff in the suitcases to set up the venue, because we're obviously flying to Norway. We've got the wedding rehearsal to do. It's quite stressful.' He said they did not receive any warning of the cancellation before it happened. 'We had no idea. There was nothing that the airport had said out on the speaker phones, or anything like that,' Mr Carr said. Passengers wait in line at Heathrow Airport after a radar failure led to the suspension of outbound flights across the UK 'There was no warning from them or the airline that said it was cancelled. It's rubbish. There's nothing we can do. 'We don't know what we're going to do tonight in terms of accommodation. We have put our cars in special car compounds for the next six days.' His friend James Hedges, also from Stourbridge, said the group was in the departures lounge when they were told the flight was cancelled. 'We'd already checked in and gone through the security checks,' he said. Meanwhile Asha, 18, from Manchester, said the chaos had ruined her first holiday interrailing. She told the BBC her 3.10pm easyJet flight to Amsterdam had actually departed and was in the air for 50 minutes – before turning around. Hours later, she said she was still 'stuck' on the tarmac at the city's airport. Another passenger, Jane Ainsworth, told the Daily Mail her flight from Kos back to Birmingham had been forced to land in Brussels. Monica Clare, 68, from London, also had her hopes of watching her loved one walk down the isle thrown into disarray after her Aer Lingus flight from Heathrow to the Republic of Ireland was cancelled. She was flying out to attend the wedding in Limerick at 2.40pm today, but was stranded on the runway for almost three hours, after which passengers were told the flight was cancelled. Another frustrated passenger travelling from Heathrow to Jersey has been sat on the plane since 2:35pm 'The wedding is in Limerick on Friday but a hotel and hire car are awaiting us tonight, At 5.30pm the captain told us their shift had finished so Aer Lingus HQ in Dublin cancelled the flight,' she told The Telegraph. 'We were told to wait for a phone update about a flight tomorrow but others were told all flights tomorrow are already full. It's totally awful. We probably have to go home and wait to see when the next available flight is. It looks like we're missing the wedding.' Durand Meachem, 49, from North Carolina, was also expecting to fly out of Heathrow on Wednesday with his partner and two daughters to celebrate his 50th birthday. They had hoped to embark continue enjoying a 'trip of a lifetime', encompassing New York, London, Dubai and Thailand, before being caught up in the travel chaos. Chris Birch and his family faced similar turmoil after their flight out to attend a wedding was cancelled due to a shortage of cabin crew. 'At Gatwick for 5 hours for a delayed flight due to crew not being available. Now the flight and holiday is cancelled,' he wrote on X. 'We have been waiting another hour to collect luggage, that has still not appeared. No prams or escalators so parents carrying babies throughout. 'Our plane was on the tarmac, and luggage on board, we were simply waiting on a crew. We are going to a wedding and we were not given the option of a re-route. This breaks UK law.' Passengers begin to board a RyanAir plane in Stansted after an air-traffic control 'technical issue' disrupted flights across the country Cockpit crews across the country were told the NATS centre in Swanwick, Southampton, had experienced a 'radar failure' at 2.30pm. 'We would appreciate your patience whilst we work through this unforeseen disruption,' they were told, according to The Sun. By 4.43pm, NATS said the issue was resolved but knock-delays will continue, with passengers advised to check with their airline. A statement read: 'Our engineers have now restored the system that was affected this afternoon. 'We are in the process of resuming normal operations in the London area. We continue to work closely with airline and airport customers to minimise disruption.' While the issue was ongoing, British Airways (BA) said the problem was 'affecting the vast majority of our flights', while Birmingham airport said 'departing flights from many UK airports have been suspended'. In an update, BA later said that the number of its inbound and outbound flights at Heathrow is restricted to a total of 32 per hour until 7.15pm before the flow rate returns to the usual level of 45 per hour. One person on X reported a Heathrow bound flight is currently circling Ben Nevis while unable to land safely A total of 84 departures across all UK airports were cancelled as a result of the incident, while 71 arrivals into Britain were also scrapped, aviation analytics firm Cirium said at 10pm last night. Consumer organisation Which? advised that passengers who have suffered delays or cancellations could have rights to food or a hotel stay. 'If your flight is cancelled or delayed, you're unlikely to be owed compensation by the airline as the technical issue is considered an 'extraordinary circumstance' and out of the airline's control,' its deputy editor Naomi Leach said. 'However, you do have a right to food or a hotel stay depending on the length of the delay but be sure you keep the receipts as you will need to claim this back from the airline.' Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said continued disruption was expected following the restoration of Nats' systems and urged passengers to check with individual airports for advice. A spokesman from the Department for Transport said: 'While passengers should continue to check with individual airports for advice, Nats have confirmed their systems are now fully operational and flights are returning to normal. 'We are working closely with Nats to understand the cause of the technical issue and the implications for the resilience systems in place.'
Telegraph
11 hours ago
- Telegraph
Holidaymakers face travel chaos after air traffic control radar failure
Summer holidaymakers are facing days of travel chaos after an air traffic control failure grounded flights across the UK. Airspace across Britain was closed on Wednesday afternoon because of a radar issue that disrupted hundreds of flights. While the breakdown was fixed within the hour, the knock-on effects from hundreds of delays and diversions – as well as at least 122 cancellations – are expected to last for days. Nats [National Air Traffic Services], the air traffic control company responsible for Britain's skies, refused to rule out hostile foreign action or a hack as the cause of the failure, fuelling calls for an 'urgent investigation' into possible malign interference. The system failure came at the peak of the summer holiday season and ahead of the busiest day of the year for commercial flights, which falls on Friday. Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, said 'continued disruption is expected' and urged passengers to 'check with individual airports for advice'. Aviation expert John Strickland warned that holidaymakers could face days of chaos because airlines were already stretched thin during the summer getaway period. 'In the absolute worst case, this could knock on for the next few days because pretty much all airline fleets are being used at full tilt right now,' he said. However, affected travellers are unlikely to be eligible for compensation because the incident was out of the control of airlines, who would otherwise pay. Passengers were left on the tarmac at other airports across the UK including Heathrow, Birmingham, Gatwick, Stansted and Cardiff while arriving planes were sent to destinations in Europe such as Amsterdam, Paris and Brussels. Monica Clare, 68, was due to fly with her cousin Geri Hawkins, 71, on Aer Lingus to a wedding in Limerick, Ireland, but their 2.40pm flight from Heathrow was cancelled after the captain's shift ended during the disruption. In Edinburgh, a group of 40 French holidaymakers were left stranded after two flights to Paris were cancelled while tourists in Faro told The Telegraph that flight attendants were handing out water to cope with delays in the Portuguese heat. Virgin Atlantic apologised to affected passengers while British Airways (BA) said the problem was 'affecting the vast majority of our flights', with at least half a dozen flights diverted. A BA source said: 'We don't know what caused this yet but it appears to have been a radar issue and Nats are responsible for the radar, so you have to say the buck stops with them.' The Telegraph understands that the air traffic control system shut down when radar systems at Nats' Swanwick area control centre in Hampshire stopped displaying flights at around 2.30pm, forcing controllers to stop accepting new arrivals into UK airspace. All flights on the ground bound for UK airports were immediately stopped from taking off, while those which were airborne but outside British skies were ordered to divert elsewhere. Flights which were preparing to land in the UK when the failure happened were able to do so safely because it only affected Nats' upper airspace unit, which does not handle individual airports' operations. Domestic flights were able to continue operating during the outage provided they stayed below 24,500 feet, The Telegraph understands. That is because the outage was limited to the Swanwick centre, which only controls flights above that height. Nats came under fire for the failure, which came two years after an engineer who was working from home struggled to fix a four-hour outage. The failure forced the cancellation of thousands of flights around the world, disrupted 700,000 passengers' journeys and cost airlines, travellers and others an estimated £100 million in total. On Wednesday Ryanair called on Martin Rolfe, Nats's chief executive, to resign after claiming 'no lessons had been learnt' from the 2023 meltdown. Neal McMahon, Ryanair's chief operating officer, said: 'It is outrageous that passengers are once again being hit with delays and disruption due to Martin Rolfe's continued mismanagement of Nats. 'Yet another ATC system failure has resulted in the closure of UK airspace meaning thousands of passengers' travel plans have been disrupted. 'It is clear that no lessons have been learnt since the August 2023 Nats system outage and passengers continue to suffer as a result.' He called on the Transport Secretary to 'act without delay to remove Martin Rolfe and deliver urgent reform of Nats's shambolic ATC service, so that airlines and passengers are no longer forced to endure these preventable delays caused by persistent Nats failures'. Air traffic control bosses confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that service had been restored but refused to answer any queries about the root cause or Mr Rolfe's future with the company. In a statement, Nats said: 'Our engineers have now restored the system that was affected this afternoon. We are in the process of resuming normal operations in the London area. 'We continue to work closely with airline and airport customers to minimise disruption. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.' Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, called for a Government inquiry into whether Nats fell victim to a foreign hack. Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said on Wednesday: 'It is utterly unacceptable that after a major disruption just two years ago, air traffic control has once again been hit by a technical fault. 'The Government should launch an urgent investigation to ensure the system is fit for purpose, including ruling out hostile action as a cause.' A Department for Transport spokesperson said: 'While passengers should continue to check with individual airports for advice, Nats have confirmed their systems are now fully operational and flights are returning to normal. 'We are working closely with Nats to understand the cause of the technical issue and the implications for the resilience systems in place.'
