Major travel disruption as over 600 flights at Heathrow and Gatwick delayed over weather

More than 600 flights have been delayed and dozens more cancelled at two major UK international airports due to the weather. Hundreds of flights operating at London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports have been delayed for up to six hours as the weather turns unsettled over the weekend after a blistering heatwave battered large areas of the UK.

Multiple headlines have been affected by the delays of varying degrees, with an easyJet flight to Antalya delayed from 11.50am to 6pm. BA flights were also disrupted. The UK's air traffic control service said delays were expected to continue for the rest of the day. Gatwick told BBC News that temporary air traffic control restrictions had been put in place, while Heathrow advised passengers to check the status of their flight with airlines before travelling.

At least 367 flights arriving at or departing from Heathrow have been delayed so far on Saturday, according to tracker FlightAware, and 352 in and out of Gatwick.

Gatwick said: "Due to ongoing thunderstorms across the network last night [Friday], temporary air traffic restrictions were put in place, which resulted in some flights being delayed and cancelled this morning."

London and the South East were hit by thunderstorms early this morning (Saturday, June 27), which then moved over northern France and other northern European areas.

NATS, the UK's air traffic control service, said "weather disruption was expected to continue through the rest of the day" after "forecasted severe weather across the south east of England".

Both easyjet and British Airways apologised to customers for the inconvenience.

easyJet said it was doing its best to help passengers impacted by the delays and cancellations. A spokesperson said: "Due to thunderstorms in the south of the UK which is restricting the number of arrivals and departures today, like other airlines we are experiencing some disruption to our flying programme and have had to pre-emptively cancel some flights to and from Gatwick in advance.

Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. Read our Privacy Policy

"We are doing all possible to minimise the impact of the weather disruption for our customers and are notifying passengers in advance with their options to rebook or receive a refund as well as hotel accommodation and meals where required."

British Airways said most of its customers would be unaffected, adding in a statement: "Like other airlines, we've had to make some adjustments to our schedule today due to air traffic control restrictions caused by adverse weather conditions affecting parts of UK airspace."

Issuing yellow alerts for thunderstorm earlier this week, the Met Office had warned that some damage to a few buildings and structures from lightning strikes was likely - and that transport may be disrupted.

Some short term loss of power and other services was also said to be likely while the thunderstorm warnings were in place.

No thunderstorm warning is currently in place in the UK, but multiple were in force on Friday, covering much of Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England.

A risk of thunderstorms, however, remains. A Met Office forecast for this evening and tonight issued at 4pm read: "Mostly warm and dry evening with sunny spells. Clouding over from the west with showery rain here later. Risk of some thunderstorms in the east where it remains warm and muggy with an Amber extreme heat warning in place."