Severe weather disrupts airline services

Severe weather has forced the cancellation of many flights in and out of Ireland today.

Aer Lingus flights have been among the worst affected. Aer Lingus, which flies to London Heathrow 13 times a day, has had to cancel all flights to the airport along with cancelling 11 inbound aircraft from Heathrow, which has now been shut.

Aer Lingus also cancelled four flights from Cork and four from Belfast to the same destination. Aer Lingus flights to and from Milan, Brussels and Paris were also affected.

Two early morning flights from London Heathrow to Dublin tomorrow morning have also been cancelled because of the knock-on effect of today's cancellations.

bmi has cancelled all flights to and from London Heathrow for the remainder of today due to the severe weather conditions.

There were long queues earlier today at the Ryanair and Aer Lingus service desks. Many had been there from early morning and were due to board connecting flights in London.

"It's a complete disaster," said Tony Dunne who was due to pick up a connecting flight to Seattle this afternoon. "We arrived here this morning there was no information, there was nobody to tell us that everything was cancelled. There are hundreds of people walking around. There doesn't seem to know anything," he said.

His partner Kristen Barrett said: "We have all these staff standing around doing nothing. In America they would rebook you. It's crazy."

Brian Collins said Aer Lingus staff had been very helpful, but he doubted he would make his connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. "I was here at 5.40am to get the 6.40am flight, but it was cancelled, so I queued up in this queue, but the second flight they put me on to was cancelled again so I had to start back at the end of the queue again. What can you do?"

Passengers affected by the disruption can rebook their flights at no additional charge via www.aerlingus.com or by calling reservations on (01) 886 8383 from Ireland or on 00 353 1 886 8383 from the UK. Alternatively, passengers that choose not to travel may avail of a refund on www.aerlingus.com

Ryanair have also been forced to cancel flights to and from London Stansted today. Passengers affected are asked to visit t www.ryanair.com to get a refund or to rebook their flight.