Grounded flights back after snow

Some passengers faced delays of up to seven hours

Some flights have resumed at Manchester Airport after they were suspended because of heavy snowfall.

Planes were grounded and incoming flights prevented from landing for about 90 minutes as engineers worked to clear runway one of snow and ice.

The closure caused delays, diversions and cancellations to several flights and passengers faced major disruption.

In addition, some US-bound flights have been cancelled because of the blizzards affecting the country's east coast.

Some passengers were stuck on planes after the decision to close runway one, while others waited for information inside the terminal buildings.

No food

Gary Whittaker boarded a Thomas Cook flight bound for Paphos at 1000 GMT - but was still sitting on the parked aircraft seven hours later.

Speaking from the plane, he told the BBC that no-one on board seemed to be able to offer them information - or any food.

"We've had no food and we've only had water, and we've had to pay for every chocolate or biscuit we've had... I think its disgraceful.

Passengers will have to bear with us to a certain extent Airport spokesman

"They took some of the staff off and put new staff on but no-one is taking any responsibility for why we can't have any food."

Airport officials are monitoring the weather and if the snow continues they may have to assess the runway again.

"There will be some knock-on effects to some of the other aircraft that were due to leave this evening," said an airport spokesman.

"We have to allocate stands to aircraft, so as well as clearing the runway we've also got to clear what's called the apron and the area around the stands, so that aircraft can come in towards the terminals.

Heavy snow fell across Greater Manchester on Sunday

"We've had extra people in this weekend both out on the runway and in the terminals helping out, so while there are delays there are extra people who are in the airport trying to help.

"So passengers will have to bear with us to a certain extent.

"If you are travelling today I'd really encourage people to check with their operator for what the scheduled time of departure for their flight might be, and just keep an eye on the weather in case it worsens."

Earlier, airport staff spent about 90 minutes spraying anti-icing fluid across the runway to clear the surface amid heavy snow showers.

It was the second time they had been forced to clear the runway on Sunday.

A number of flights had also been diverted to Manchester from mainland European airports because of poor conditions there.

The Met Office said that "heavy and prolonged" snow showers would continue through the afternoon across Greater Manchester.

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