FLIGHTS have been delayed or cancelled in Essex today after a thick blanket of fog descended across the county.

All departures and more than half of arrivals to and from Stansted Airport were late and more than half of flights in and out of Southend Airport were delayed or cancelled this morning.

Flights to Stansted from Pisa, Italy, and Warsaw, Poland, were three hours late and a plane to Madrid, Spain, from the Essex airport was in the air more than two hours late.

The 1.55pm flight from Southend to Jersey today has been cancelled due to bad weather at the destination and flights to Amsterdam, Barcelona and Alicante, Spain, and from Dublin and Amsterdam have been delayed.

Flights to the airport from Waterford, Ireland, and Belfast were diverted to Luton and Stansted respectively due to the fog in Southend.

Flights to and from Heathrow were also delayed due to the fog.

Travellers awoke to thick fog across Essex and Jersey and dense cloud over Dublin, Amsterdam and other European destinations.

Passengers have been told to check their flights with airports and airlines leaving.

Jonathan Rayner, head of business development for Southend Airport, said: “There is some schedule disruption at London Southend Airport this morning largely as a result of poor weather conditions at destination airports, although some flights have been affected by fog in Southend.

“Passengers are advised to check the website and airport flight information boards for further information.”

No-one was available from Stansted Airport for comment.

Neither train operators c2c nor Greater Anglia reported any delays this morning as a result of the weather.