A massive St. Jude Day storm has snarled travel across the United Kingdom. The strong storm has forced flight to be canceled, roads to be shut and trains to stop running, leaving commuters stranded.
A storm with 99 mile per hour winds lashed out on Southern England and Wales on Monday, impacting travel around Europe.
About 130 flights were cancelled at London Heathrow airport, mostly between the hours of 6 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Monday morning. The airport operates about 1,200 flights ever day, so the cancellations impacts 20 percent of flights. It is expected that there will be more cancellations and an additional 10 percent of flight between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. will be cancelled with another five percent cut for the rest of the day.
According to USA Today, most of British Airways' long haul flights will operate as usual but domestic and European flights were operating at a reduced schedule with some cancellations. It claimed that Gatwick and City airports would not be impacted. According to FlightAware.com, 20 flights were cancelled at City airport. Gatwick warned of some disruptions and train service to the airport didn't start until 9 a.m.
The storm is impacting other areas as well. Besides trains not running between central London and Gatwick and Stansted airports, the English port of Dover was closed, so ferry service to France was cut off.
Travel was impacted in the Netherlands as well as the rail service on several lines was suspended and the airports had some issues. FlightAware.com says that 100 flights were canceled at Amstersdam's Schiphol Airport. The airport is a busy hub for KLM flights. On its website, KLM said that "strong (gusty) winds will have a significant impact on the runway capacity for Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and therefore on our flight schedules." As a precaution the airline cancelled more than three dozen flights around Europe.
Another 20 flights were cancelled at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport. Aer Lingus in Ireland also cancelled some flights due to the storm.
Train travel was also impacted in the Netherlands as Amsterdam's busy Central railway station was closed due to the storm.
Many commuters could not start the work week off as rail service was suspended and roads were closed due to downed trees.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
