Emirates and Etihad schedule extra UK flights

Both Emirates and Etihad have scheduled extra flights to cope with the passenger backlog after the reopening of London's Heathrow airport today.

The closing of Heathrow airport for about 24 hours left thousands of passengers stranded. Emirates and Etihad are now scheduling extra flights to deal with the backlog.

Flights from the UAE to London have resumed following a phased reopening of London's Heathrow airport, which closed yesterday as a result of heavy snow and freezing weather conditions.

The airport was shut for around 24 hours, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.

Both UAE carriers, Etihad Airways and Emirates, have resumed London flights but some have been rescheduled because of capacity restraints.

Etihad's flight EY11 departed from Abu Dhabi at 9.25am (delayed from 2.40am) and EY19 departed on schedule at 8.40am. The carrier plans to operate EY17 on schedule at 1.30pm.

An additional flight to Manchester will operate at 2pm from Abu Dhabi with passengers taken by coach to London.

The EY17 Abu Dhabi to London flight that was diverted to Frankfurt on Saturday will operate to Manchester, because of capacity restraints at Heathrow, and passengers will be taken by coach to London.

“We are very pleased to be able to resume flights to London this morning and thank our customers for their patience and understanding during this challenging period," said James Hogan, Etihad Airways' chief executive officer.

“Etihad’s operations teams have worked tirelessly since the disruption began and can now implement their plans to ensure our passengers get to their homes and holidays in time for Christmas.”

Emirates has also announced on its website that its flights to Heathrow have resumed.

The airline is also putting on three extra flights out of the UK to help clear delayed passengers. The extra services are running today from London Heathrow, Birmingham and Manchester.

The carrier said all other airports in the UK, including London Gatwick, Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester and Glasgow remain open. Emirates flights to and from them, as well as Emirates' other European destinations are operating as close to schedule as possible, "but are dependent on the constantly changing weather conditions", it said.

Both airlines have advised customers to check the status of their flights today for possible changes or delays at www.emirates.ae or www.etihadairways.com.