Bristol escapes latest snow storm
Flights to and from Bristol International Airport were cancelled and diverted on Monday night because of heavy snow.
But by Tuesday morning the snow had cleared from the city.
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Snow in Tetbury, South Gloucestershire, on Tuesday morning
Both Severn bridges were closed but have also reopned.
At Bristol Airport evening flights to Edinburgh, Newcastle, Brussels and Dublin were cancelled, although other flights to Newquay and Plymouth were able to take off.
Incoming flights were being diverted to Cardiff, Birmingham, Gatwick and Manchester, and one flight from Frankfurt was turned back to Germany.
The airport reopened on Tuesday morning.
The snow also affected bus services in Bristol on Monday night, with First cancelling a number of services including the Bristol Flyer airport link.
Company spokeswoman Suzannah Marsh said the snow had caused “major disruption.
Bristol had been forecast to be badly affected by the latest snow storm, but most of the problems are in south Wales.
The Bristol, Bath and Somerset region has, however, been warned of flooding problems.
5 Comments
by MendipMan, Wurzel Country
Tuesday, February 10 2009, 11:31AM
“If you landed at Cardiff how do you know what the runway conditions at Bristol were like at that time? It's a nonsensical statement to say aircraft would have landed at any other European airport in those conditions. You can't possibly know that.
Bristol's main problem this last week has been the inordinate amount of snow that fell around the airport. It may have escaped your notice that nearly all the UK's airports have closed at some point during the past week because of the snow, including Heathrow. Several, like Bristol, Luton and East Midlands, have had to close more than once.
The two major Paris airports have been closed for the last 12 hours because of high winds. Good job Bristol didn't close as well or that would have been wrong in the eyes of some.
Bristol is the UK's ninth busiest airport (fifth busiest outside the London airports after Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Glasgow) and is owned by the major airport player, Macquarie. It is one of their important assets and they certainly would not let it stagnate through lack of equipment.
An airport spokesman said today they have removed 60,000 tons of snow from the runway, taxiways and apron in the past week which shows there might just have been one or two problems if they had told aircraft it was safe to land during the snow episodes.
I have no connection with the airport other than being grateful as a traveller to have such an excellent facility close at hand.
.”
by Joe, Bristol
Tuesday, February 10 2009, 11:24AM
“Alex,Micky Mouse comes to mind.”
by Alex, Bristol
Tuesday, February 10 2009, 10:46AM
“Why does Bristol Airport close when it is snowing? I came in from Dublin last week, it was snowing but there was no accumulated snow on the runway yet we were diverted to Cardiff. Are they lacking some essential equipment? I don't know how they call it an international airport when in the same conditions you could have landed at any European airport.”
by Frosty!, Frostington
Tuesday, February 10 2009, 10:06AM
“I'M MELTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(”
by Spotter, Bristol
Tuesday, February 10 2009, 9:57AM
“Damn, what are the BEP journos gonna write about now?”