Irish flights grounded as cold snap hits London Heathrow

More than 70 flights into and out of London’s Heathrow, including 10 flights to and from Dublin and Cork, have been cancelled due to expected snow and freezing temperatures in Britain.

Dublin Airport has assured fans heading to Ireland's Six Nations rugby match against England at Twickenham that their travel plans would not be interrupted.

“There are three departures and three inbound flights cancelled and the departures are in the afternoon so they won’t affect the travel plans of anyone going to the match,” said a spokesman for Dublin Airport.

The Ireland-England game kicks off at 2.45pm, with the Irish players searching for their third ever Grand Slam after sealing victory in the Six Nations championship last weekend.

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The cancelled Heathrow flights are mostly on short-haul routes, although British Airways flights to New York and Chicago are among the cancellations.

Six flights in and out of Dublin and four in and out of Cork Airport have been affected.

In Dublin, three outbound flights and three inbound flights - two Aer Lingus flights and four British Airways flights - have been cancelled due to the bad weather forecast this afternoon.

British Airways flight BA839, which was scheduled to depart for Heathrow at 2.25pm, has been cancelled along with Aer Lingus EI172 at 3.20pm and British Airways BA827 at 5.40pm.

On the inbound route from Heathrow to Dublin, British Airways flight BA838, scheduled to land in Dublin at 1.45pm, has been cancelled, along with British Airways flight BA826, which was due to land at 4.55pm and Aer Lingus EI173, which was scheduled to land at 7.05pm.

Aer Lingus has cancelled flight EI722 from Cork Airport to London Heathrow which was scheduled to leave at 4pm and EI723 which was due to return from Heathrow at 6.05pm.

The British Airways flight BA5922 from Cork to Heathrow, which was also scheduled to leave at 4pm, and the return 7.25pm flight, BA5923, from Heathrow have also been cancelled

The UK Met Office has issued “danger to life” warnings from the cold front dubbed the “mini beast from the east” as an “amber” weather warning for snow and ice is in place in parts of the UK.

Multiple flights out of Heathrow to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester have been cancelled, along with services to Amsterdam, Geneva and Paris.

A spokesman for BA said: “Due to wintry weather and restrictions at some airports we fly to and from, we have merged a small number of our Heathrow flights to ensure that the vast majority of our customers are able to travel to their destinations as planned.”