Gatwick flights cancelled and Tube hit with delays as great summer getaway begins

We are wrapping up today’s London travel blog, thank you for following.

Tune back in tomorrow morning for more updates.

In the meantime, you can email [email protected] for any transport stories and issues or DM on X @NooraMykkanen.

In case you missed it, here is a list of flights cancelled out of London airports so far today.

Heathrow

British Airways, 6.40am to Geneva

Aer Lingus, 8.50am to Dublin

SAS Scandinavian Airlines, 10.35am to Oslo

Delta Air Lines, 10.55am to Salt Lake City

American Airlines, 12.30pm to Philadelphia

British Airways, 3pm to Split

Lufthansa, 4.30pm to Frankfurt

London Gatwick

EasyJet, 6.40am to Berlin

British Airways, 7.55am to Nice

EasyJet, 8.15am to Lyon

EasyJet, 8.40am to Malaga

EasyJet, 10.05am to Lisbon

EasyJet, 10.30am to Tivat

EasyJet, 7.40pm to Palma de Mallorca

EasyJet, 8.20pm to Geneva

Transport for London warned of severe delays on part of the Elizabeth line this afternoon.

Service between London Paddington, Heathrow Airport and Reading is disrupted due to a faulty freight train at Southall, the latest TfL travel update shows.

The disruption is expected at least until 4.45pm.

Here is a list of all the affected services.

Elizabeth line between Shenfield and Heathrow Terminal, and between Abbey Wood and Heathrow Terminal 4 / Heathrow Terminal 5 / Maidenhead / Reading.

Great Western Railway between London Paddington and Newbury / Didcot Parkway / Oxford / Banbury / Newbury / Worcester Shrub Hill / Cheltenham Spa / Frome / Bristol Temple Meads / Weston-super-Mare / Worcester Foregate Street / Great Malvern / Hereford / Cardiff Central / Swansea / Carmarthen / Taunton Exeter St Davids / Paignton / Plymouth / Penzance.

Heathrow Express between London Paddington and Heathrow Terminal 5.

Piccadilly line on the London Underground will shut for two weeks this summer ahead of the launch of new carriages.

The busy Tube line, which connects London and Heathrow, is set to get 94 new air-conditioned trains next year.

But before they can launch, the tracks and platforms will be upgraded.

This means there will be part-closures on weekends in July and August before a 16-day stretch ending on September 1.

Here are the times when part of Piccadilly line will be closed.

From 12.30am to 6am, Saturday, August 17 – no service between King’s Cross and Cockfosters.

From 6am, Saturday, 17 August until start of service on Sunday, September 1 – no service between Wood Green and Cockfosters.

Cockfosters, Oakwood, Southgate, Arnos Grove and Bound Green stations will have no Tube service during the works, TfL said.

Passengers have been warned of further delays in central London.

There are severe delays on the Metropolitan line and London Overground.

Trains are delayed between Wembley Park and Aldgate due to an earlier faulty train, TfL says.

There is no Overground service between between Stratford and Richmond/Clapham Junction due to a points failure at Willesden Junction which Network Rail engineers are working to fix.

London Overground and Southern trains are affected until at least 2pm.

Trains on the line may be cancelled, delayed by up to 30 minutes or revised, National Rail warned.

More flights have been cancelled out of London Gatwick and Heathrow airports today.

Five EasyJet flights were axed this morning from Gatwick –  Lyon (EJU8430), Malaga (EJU8078), Lisbon (EJU8078), Berlin (EZY8630), and Tivat (EZY8812).

Now the 12.55pm EasyJet flight to Catania also appears to be cancelled along with the 7.45pm to Geneva.

British Airways has also axed some flights from the transport hub today.

Its 12.55pm flight to Nice, France, has also been axed, along with the 8.40pm flight to Thira Santorini.

TUI flight to Mugla, Turkey, at 3.15pm also appears as ‘cancelled’ on the Gatwick departures board.

At Heathrow, SAS cancelled its 10.35am flight to Oslo, while Delta axed its 10.55am to Salt Lake City in the US.

Football fan Jonty Whelan is one of the passengers whose summer holiday has turned into a travel nightmare after his EasyJet flight was cancelled this morning.

The 24-year-old marketing assistant was on his way to watch Morocco play Argentina at St Etienne at the Paris 2024 Olympics tomorrow (July 24).

But when he woke up at 4am to make his 8.15am flight from Gatwick to Lyon, he had a disappointing email from EasyJet saying his flight has been axed.

Jonty told Metro.co.uk: ‘As I live in Essex and my first train into London was at 5am, I had to stay in London overnight.

‘I got up at 4am and woke up to the email saying my flight was cancelled. I could have stayed at home and not pay for the hotel and not get up so early.

‘I’ve been up for hours.’

After a stressful couple of hours trying to find an alternative flight and contacting EasyJet customer service, he managed to get himself on another flight with the budget airline.

But his new flight is not until 5pm, and to Montpellier – hundreds of miles further south than his original flight to Lyon which is near the football stadium.

‘I’ll take a train to Nimes in the evening and then get the train really early tomorrow.

‘It’s not the way I wanted it to go. I won’t get Nimes until 11pm.’

He said he was worried he could still miss the 3pm game tomorrow which cost him €60.

‘I still don’t know why the flight was cancelled in the first place. The email said ‘we want to keep our staff safe’, but I was confused for the actual reason,’ he added.

EasyJet was contacted for a comment.

UK roads are expected to get busy this week as the summer getaway travel gets underway.

Motoring expert RAC revealed where the worst congestion is likely to plague drivers on the ‘weekend of woe’.

Trains between East Croydon and Watford Junction were also affected by delays after a points failure brought service to a halt.

The failure between Shepherds Bush and Watford Junction is causing delays at least until 11am.

National Rail told passengers to allow an extra 30 minutes to their journeys and to check the journey planner before travelling.

While the lines have now reopened, trains may still be cancelled or revised as service recovers, it said.

Passengers have been warned of severe disruption on the Elizabeth line at rush hour this morning.

There are severe delays between London Paddington station and Heathrow Terminals and Reading.

It comes after ‘an earlier customer incident at Ealing Broadway,’ the latest Transport for London status update says.

Disruption is expected until 11.30am, and trains may be cancelled, delayed by up to 20 minutes or revised.

Part of the London Overground is closed in east London for the next two weeks for bridge replacement works.

There will be no Overground service between Hackney Downs and Chingford stations in east London from Saturday, July 20 and Sunday, August 4, Network Rail said.

It means there will be no rail service to or from Clapton, St James Street, Walthamstow Central, Wood Street, Highams Park and Chingford stations.

The works causing the line closure was needed to carry out a ‘critical stage of a bridge replacement’ south of the Hackney Downs Park, Network Rail said.

‘The 150-year-old bridge is in very poor condition, so it has to be replaced to keep passengers and road users safe,’ it added.

EasyJet has cancelled flights out of London Gatwick airport this morning.

A total of five flights appeared as cancelled on the Gatwick departures board on Tuesday (July 23).

Cancelled flights include Lyon EJU8430, Malaga EJU8078), Lisbon EJU8078, Berlin EZY8630, and Tivat EZY8812. 

It comes days after the global IT outage hit airlines, hospitals, GPs and media organisations on Friday, grounding 50,000 flights in the UK alone over the weekend.

A spokesperson for EasyJet told Metro.co.uk: ‘easyJet is operating over 1800 flights today however five flights from London Gatwick this morning have unfortunately been disrupted due to the knock-on impact of air traffic control delays.

‘While this is outside of our control, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused and are providing customers with a refund or a transfer to an alternative flight as well as hotel accommodation and meals where needed.’