Over 20 flights cancelled at Glasgow Airport this morning as runway blanketed in snow and ice

Over 20 flights from Glasgow Airport were cancelled this morning as the runway was blanketed with heavy snowfall in the early hours of today, December 16.

The heavy snowfall experienced across Glasgow, coupled with sparse rain and subzero tempratures has left the airport struggling to clear the icy hazardous conditions which in turn led to the cancellation of over 20 flights this morning.

At 11:34am today the airport made the announcement on Twitter:”Three hours of heavy snow, intermittent rainfall and ground tempratures well below freezing have created very challenging conditions on our airfield.

“Our winter teams are working extremely hard in these difficult conditions to resume operations, but only when it is safe to do so.

“Thank you for your continued patience.”

The runway was cleared for operation shortly after the initial announcement was made - and now airplanes have started to take off from the runway again - with passengers now beginning to board planes at the airport.

At 12pm, the airport gave an updated announcement on Twitter, they said:”Our runway was cleared for operation shortly after 1130 and we are now working with our airline partners to help resume their flight schedules.

“The winter operations team will remain in place and we will continue to monitor weather conditions.

“While adverse weather conditions can be disruptive and frustrating, the safety of our passengers and people must always come first.

“We would like to thank our passengers for their continued patience and ask that they continue to check with their airlines regarding the status of their flights.”

Today’s performance at Glasgow Airport follows the news released earlier this week that saw over a dozen flights cancelled and many delayed by over an hour as the airlines struggle to cope with one of Scotland’s coldest winters on record.

It wasn’t just Glasgow that was affected - as most of the UK was hit by snow and a very sudden, very sharp drop in tempratures over last weekend. According to the aviation analytics company, Cirium, a total of 316 flights were cancelled across Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted, Glasgow, Belfast International, and Bristol airports last weekend - that’s roughly 11 per cent of all scheduled flights from the UK’s biggest airports.