I was due to fly from London City Airport and back this afternoon, but the rather nasty British weather had it own mind. When I arrived at the airport there was a huge line at the BA ticket desk which didn’t bode well, but there was no delay shown on the board.

There was no line at the Security checkpoint, but the staff revealed that there had been no flights since the early morning, as no planes had landed. After about an hour the decision on my flight was delayed until 4pm, when the weather was supposed to clear.

However, a quick look out of the window showed dense fog with the runway invisible:

At about 3pm the weather started to clear, but at about 3.30pm both my outbound and return were cancelled.

The BA staff in the lounge kept their sense of humour even though they were answering the same questions time and time again. I escaped through the back stairs to Customs and was quickly outside. The queue at the ticket desk was only 20 people, but when I explained that my only concern was making sure I wasn’t a no-show for my JFK flight the next day, they reassured me and sent me on my way. I had already planned to stay nearby this evening and so popped on the bus for the 10 minute journey to the Holiday Inn Express, Canning Town.

A 20 minute phone call to BA reservations generated a refund for the outbound and an assurance that my flight the day was fine. Let’s see what happens. I understand the plane is actually at Gatwick and they plan to fly it over this evening or tomorrow. The BA 3 this evening was flown from Gatwick to Shannon and then on to JFK with passengers bussed round.

Of course, it’s clear and cold tonight and there are plenty of seats from Heathrow for tomorrow, so I have options!