Passengers travelling to and from Dublin airport experienced delays of up to three hours yesterday evening due to weather conditions at several UK airports, including Heathrow.
However, Aer Lingus, which carried around 20,000 passengers in and out of Dublin airport yesterday and expects to carry a further 16,000 today, yesterday pledged to get any passengers booked on its airline to their destinations.
Sea carriers operating on the major routes between the UK and Ireland also expressed confidence that they had sufficient capacity to carry any "last-minute" passengers travelling to Ireland for the Christmas period. Both Stena Line and Irish Ferries reported significant extra passenger bookings as a result of the airport delays.
Dick Butler, head of ground operations with Aer Lingus, last night said it was "determined to run the schedule we have published".
Passengers to and from London were experiencing delays of up to three hours yesterday evening, he said. But he said any passengers who had booked with the airline should arrive for their flights as normal.
"Once we can get in and out of airports we will get people home," he said.
Budget airline Ryanair said dense fog at London Stansted and Bristol airports, which continued throughout yesterday afternoon, leading to long air traffic control delays, had forced it to cancel 18 flights. But it said this represented less than 2 per cent of its 850 flights.
"Ryanair has been forced to cancel 16 flights to/from Stansted airport. Fog has also caused two cancellations from Bristol airport and is continuing to cause some delays at Nottingham East Midlands and Liverpool airports," it said yesterday.
Ryanair's schedule of Irish flights was continuing to operate yesterday subject to air traffic control delays caused by fog in the UK, it added.
BMI airline expected to operate as normal for the remainder of yesterday on its Dublin-London Heathrow route, but said some delays could occur. It would accommodate all passengers on scheduled departures from Dublin airport, it added.
Siobhán Moore of the Dublin Airport Authority said yesterday was one of the busiest days of the year for the airport, with 83,000 passengers travelling through the facility.
She confirmed that passengers travelling to and from London, who earlier in the day had been experiencing delays of between 60-90 minutes, were experiencing delays of up to three hours from approximately 5pm yesterday.
This affected all airlines operating to and from the UK airports in question. Other routes were operating as normal, she added.