Airport delays live: Fog continues to cause disruption at Gatwick with snow and rain weather warnings to come

Those hoping to travel on New Year’s Day should check road conditions and public transport updates before embarking on their journeys.

In Wales, the new year will be off to a soggy start as the majority of the country is likely to be drenched by up to 60mm of rain causing delays for road transport, potential power cuts and flooding.

A yellow warning for “persistent snow” likely to cause travel disruption has been issued for Orkney and Shetland during Hogmanay.

The Met Office alert covers all of the islands and is in place from 5am all day on Tuesday.

Up to 20cm of snow are expected in the worst affected areas, mainly Mainland and Hoy, with 5 to 10cm predicted elsewhere.

Longer road journey times are likely as a result of difficult driving conditions, the forecaster warned.

Delays and cancellations are building up at London Gatwick, the world’s busiest single-runway airport. Around 60 flights to and from Gatwick have been grounded, affecting an estimated 9,000 passengers.

While Sunday morning started with only some modest waits of up to an hour, by lunchtime the average delay extended to two hours. Some departures were five hours behind schedule, including easyJet to Aberdeen.

The biggest airline at Gatwick, easyJet, has so far cancelled flights to Edinburgh, Glasgow, the Isle of Man, Berlin (two services), Munich, Basel, Geneva, Zurich and Innsbruck.

One easyJet inbound flight from Nice diverted to Bournemouth.

British Airways has cancelled flights to Bordeaux, Gran Canaria, Jersey and Geneva, while Wizz Air grounded its departure to Larnaca in Cyprus.

The Spanish low-cost airline Vueling has once again cancelled some inbound flights, from Asturias, Malaga, Seville, Santiago and Barcelona, to avoid them being caught with long delays to land and return to Spain.

Norwegian did the same from Bergen, Copenhagen (two services), Oslo, Stavanger, Stockholm and Trondheim.

Swiss grounded its flight from Zurich, as did TAP Portugal from Porto.

Cancellations are likely to increase into the evening as crews reach their maximum permitted hours.

For those celebrating Hogmanay, heavy downpours and snowfall may cause “significant disruption” across northern Scotland, with up to 140mm of rainfall on Monday and Tuesday.

Up to 20cm of snow may blanket areas of higher ground while strong winds have the potential to “exacerbate impacts”, creating “blizzard conditions” which could freeze powerlines.

A warning has also been issued for “persistent snow” likely to cause road disruption in Orkney and Shetland from 5am onwards on Tuesday.

The new year will be off to a turbulent start with separate weather warnings in place for snow, wind and rain on January 1.

Worst affected areas could be covered in up to 25cm of snow, including Central Tayside and Fife, the East Midlands, northern England and the Lothian borders.

Heavy snow, rain and wind are set to hit the UK, causing travel disruption over New Year’s Eve and the majority of next week.

The Met Office has issued multiple weather warnings between Monday and Thursday, with nearly all of the country impacted by at least one alert.

In England and Northern Ireland, gusts of up to 70mph may lead to travel disruption on December 31, with delays to road, rail, air and ferry transport all likely, the forecaster has warned.

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for winds of up to 70mph that may cause travel disruption on New Year’s Eve.

The alert, in place from 7am until 11pm on Tuesday, covers most of Northern Ireland, including Londonderry, Tyrone, Antrim and Armagh, as well as just north of York in England up to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Greenock.

Delays to transport are likely, with gusts of up to 60mph expected in most areas, the forecaster has warned.

Those affected should check road conditions for driving and the latest travel information as well as preparing for in advance for potential power cuts.

Staff shortage on the railways means thousands of airline passengers will find they cannot easily get to or from the airport.

CrossCountry has cancelled a number of trains serving Birmingham airport, blaming a shortage of drivers and train managers.

The rail firm says: “Services will be extremely busy and may be subject to last-minute changes and cancellations. Essential travel only between Bournemouth, Reading and Birmingham.”

This is the line that includes Birmingham International, the station serving the West Midlands airport.

Manchester airport’s railway station is seeing the usual Sunday cancellations of trains by Northern due to a shortage of train conductors. The Manchester airport-Wilmslow link is one of nine routes that have been closed to trains for the day.

Northern says: “Recently, we have seen higher levels of cancellations in the north west and for that we are sorry. The underlying reason is train crew availability, in particular on Sundays which is contractually outside of the working week.”

Swimmers brave the December chill as fog appears to dissipate above Cullercoats Bay on the north east coast of England.