Dubai International digging itself out of UK snow delays

Travellers at Dubai International Airport were among the thousands delayed worldwide as snowstorms in Britain disrupted schedules.

DUBAI // Travellers at Dubai International Airport were among the thousands delayed worldwide as snowstorms in Britain disrupted air schedules. The UK's heaviest snow in 18 years forced Heathrow Airport to close its two runways on Monday. A Cyprus Airways plane skidded off a taxiway, adding to disruptions. Michael Dilucia finally flew into Dubai yesterday, after arriving at Heathrow to catch a British Airways flight on Sunday. Mr Dilucia, his wife and granddaughter had to wait 28 hours before their flight took off. During that time they complain that they were given little information and could not leave the airport.

Passengers travelling from Dubai back to the UK faced similar problems. Laura Shearing, a Briton who had arrived in Dubai on Thursday, was scheduled to return to London on Tuesday morning, but found out four hours before her flight that it had been cancelled. The next available flight was 24 hours later. Shuja Mehdi, a senior agent at the British Airways branch in Dubai, said schedules were returning to normal yesterday. "Most of our flights are beginning to get back on time, and the ones coming back from the UK are still a little delayed."

An Emirates Airline official said flights were only slightly affected by disruptions. "We did not have to cancel any of our flights, and one flight was delayed over Birmingham," she said. Leo Seaton, a spokesman for Etihad Airways, said it suffered no significant delays yesterday. [e-mail]