Hundreds of flights cancelled from London airports

[muriel_volestrangler]

British Airways cancelled all short-haul flights in and out of Heathrow, and by late morning, was forced to axe more than 200 of the 550 flights it normally operates out of the west London airport daily.
...
Low-cost carrier Ryanair was another of the airlines badly hit - cancelling nearly 100 flights.

Many foreign airlines suspended services to London, even before BAA announced a suspension of short-haul Heathrow-bound flights, that had not already left for London. Those axing flights to London included Italian carrier Alitalia, German airline Lufthansa, Spanish carrier Iberia and Irish airline Aer Lingus. Air France scrapped five of its Heathrow to Paris flights.
...
All EasyJet flights from Gatwick have also been cancelled. (ed: that's probably a few dozen too too)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1841154,00.html

The regional airports, which aren't quite so busy during the week, don't seem quite so affected (though may have feeder flights to the London which must have been cancelled, since Heathrow told incoming flight not to take off). But the London airports are simply unable to cope with the security measures they've introduced. Effectively, they've ground to a halt.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

1. I suspect that even under "normal" circumstances...

...places like Stansted aren't at near-full capacity, whereas Heathrow seems to be a total madhouse at all hours of the day and night even in the best circumstances.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Have you ever used Stansted?

I've seen the place full at midnight. They are cancelling flights from there too.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

3. Yeah, a few times.

It was always empty when I was there, except for the people stuck with the interminable RyanAir delays. :)

[magellan]

4. We've used Stansted near to midnight in a gale

And it was full. So was our flight to Scotland, which nearly didn't make it.

I wouldn't like to be stuck at any of the UK's airports right now.