Please sign in to post.

Best ways to avoid delays flying out of London (LGW) in late November?

Posted by on

I'm scheduling a flight from London (LGW) to Milan for Nov 21 or 22, 2016 , and my German relatives are telling me that London gets especially foggy during that time and could delay flights. Now, I'm guessing we can't really look that far into the future for inclement weather, but would it be best to schedule for an early morning flight in case flights are delayed later that day?

I read stories regarding Nov 2nd that early morning flights out of London were permitted but things were shut down later in the afternoon. So is it likely that morning flights have a greater chance of flying than later flights on a fog day? Is the fog usually much lighter in London during the early hours than the later hours?

I could even schedule the flight for earlier in the month if that will help...

Thanks,
Steve

Posted by
6113 posts

Fog is usually worse early in the morning - it's rare to last beyond say 11am. Gatwick is more prone to fog than London City Airport. Flights aren't often delayed by more than a couple of hours at worst, so not worth much thought, unless you are only going for a day or making an essential connection. If the latter, go the day before.

Posted by
4044 posts

I've experienced a fog delay in Germany too. And Detroit. If an early flight is delayed, it can disrupt the airline's schedule all day. Solution: A Zen attitude; take it as it comes. (Nice to see that old joke about the English channel resurrected, by the way.)

Posted by
13 posts

Thank you for the responses! I'm going to go ahead with our plans to fly to London from Munich for a 3 night November stay and not worry about the fog too much. I'd be inclined to leave from Heathrow rather than Gatwick after reading Jennifer's and Emma's posts, and perhaps schedule a flight later in the afternoon, too.

I'll also schedule the flight one day before the Milan MXP-to-JFK flight just to give a bit of buffer prior to coming home.

This topic has been automatically closed due to a period of inactivity.