THOUSANDS of passengers have been left stranded after thick fog caused travel delays at Jersey Airport – but there were hopes of at least a slight improvement in today’s conditions.
After two days with only one scheduled flight being able to land, the first successful arrival of today came at 7.25am as a Blue Islands’ service from Southampton touched down, with other services from London Gatwick and Southampton also arriving by 8.10am. More flights are anticipated during the coming hours – weather permitting.
Jersey Met expressed hope that visibility may be better this morning, but warned that the Island may not have seen the back of the current spell of fog, mist and low cloud.
No planes were able to land at all on Monday, meaning 2,079 passengers could not reach the Island, according to Ports of Jersey. Three “red-eye” flights were able to take off that day, but no other departures were possible, leaving a further 1,200 passengers grounded in Jersey.
The picture was little better yesterday: by 6pm a lone Blue Islands’ service from Guernsey had been the only flight able to land during a brief improvement in conditions at around 10am.
A Blue Islands service to the Isle of Man was also able to depart and reach its destination, but the return service was diverted to Exeter.
Several flights took off and headed to Jersey, but were unable to land and – after a period circling overhead – were forced to head back across the English Channel. This included an easyJet service which left London Gatwick at 6.17am yesterday and circled above the south-west tip of Jersey for almost two hours before returning to its starting point, landing at 9.03am.
Jersey Met senior forecaster Martin Nduta said: “We are looking at some possible improvement for this morning, which might mean some flights can get in, but then it seems it may become murkier again later.
“The models are very changeable, and we could also have fog tomorrow morning before the chance of some brighter conditions later.”
A spokesperson for Jersey Airport said passengers should check in as usual, unless they had been contacted by their airline.
An easyJet spokesperson said airlines were “experiencing disruption to their flying programme due to ongoing low visibility weather conditions” at Jersey Airport.
“As the forecast is not set to improve, a number of flights on Tuesday were delayed overnight, including those from London Gatwick, London Luton and Liverpool airports,” they added.
“We offered hotel accommodation and meals to customers affected by the delays, as well as a refund or free flight transfer and provided advice to those making their own arrangements for onwards travel and hotel accommodation on how they can be reimbursed.
“While these delays were clearly outside our control, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused and are working hard to support all affected customers. The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority.”
Many Islanders took to social media to express their frustration. Some raised concerns about missing family funerals or operations scheduled to take place in Southampton, while others travelled on the overnight boat to Portsmouth in order to catch their onward flights from Gatwick or Heathrow.
Supporters of Liverpool Football Club hoping to see last night’s European Champions League tie with Bayer Leverkusen were among those stuck in Jersey, with some Islanders unable to return to Jersey offering to buy match tickets that might otherwise have been unused.
