HEATHROW airport yesterday cancelled half of the 1,300 sceduled flights as snow and freezing temperatures hit Britain.
Despite the massive disruption at the UK’s busiest airport, owner BAA said its snow plan had worked “far better” than in previous years. It claimed making a decision about flight cancellations on Saturday gave passengers time to cancel or rebook.
Around 10cm of snow blanketed the UK in 24 hours, stranding motorists on major motorways including the M25 and M40.
But economists said this weekend’s snow has not yet set in and – unlike the heavy fall of December 2010 – is unlikely to have a big impact on GDP.
“Fortunately for many retailers the snow was not hugely disruptive during opening hours on Saturday, which of course is a crucial shopping day,” said Howard Archer, of IHS Global Insight.
“It should not be enough to stop most people getting to work or to seriously disrupt supply chains by stopping goods, components and raw materials being moved around.”
Early winter snow in December 2010 caused British GDP to contract in the final quarter of the year. Economic output fell 0.5 per cent, with sectors including mining and construction hit particularly hard by the weather.
The Met Office is not expecting heavy snow in the next week, but says it may return in late February.
