Christmas travel latest: Traffic chaos as M40 shuts due to crash and airport delays after flights grounded

Amber warnings for traffic gridlock, threatened strikes and the traditional rail engineering work interrupting major train links: it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

The festive season this winter will be busier than ever, with record numbers of travellers predicted at London Heathrow and many other airports, as well as on Britain’s motorways.

The Independent’s travel correspondent Simon Calder outlines the key pinch points and potential problems – to help you plan to swerve the disruption, or at least to be prepared for crowds and chaos:

American Airlines passengers at London Heathrow endured a painful wait when their transatlantic flights were halted by the carrier’s network-wide ground stop.

Two American Airlines flights, AA109 to Boston and AA729 to Philadelphia, took off shortly after 11am – minutes before the order was issued.

The following flight, AA137 to Los Angeles, pushed back from the gate on schedule at 11.15am – but then held on the ground until the order was lifted. It finally took off at 1pm and is expected to reach California over an hour late – jeopardising onward connections.

The next American Airlines departure from Heathrow, AA57 to Miami, spent 75 minutes on the ground before taking off.

Five more American Airlines flights are due to leave before 2pm but may be delayed.

American Airlines has now lifted an hour-long ground stop of all its flights in the US, a notice on the US aviation regulator’s website showed.

The ground stop on Tuesday was due to an unspecified technical issue.

American Airlines has grounded its flights across the US on Christmas Eve amid one of the busiest travel periods of the year.

“A technical issue is affecting American flights this morning,” an airline spokesperson told CNN Tuesday morning. “Our teams are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and we apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”

The airline wrote on X in response to one passenger that it is “currently experiencing a technical issue with all American Airlines flights.

My colleague Amelia Neath reports on this breaking news story:

Part of the M40 has been closed following a crash involving a lorry.

National Highways said the #M40 in Oxfordshire is closed southbound between J8A, near Waterstock, and J6, near Lewknor, to recover an overturned HGV involved in an earlier collision.

Travellers seeking to fly between the UK and the Channel Islands have faced diversions and cancellations.

Two easyJet flights to Jersey – from London Gatwick and Manchester – flew to the islands, circled in the hope of landing but then returned to their starting points.

British Airways also returned one Gatwick-Jersey flight to its starting point, and cancelled another morning service.

To Guernsey, two Aurigny flights from London diverted in quick succession. One, from Gatwick, headed for Southampton; the other, from London City, landed in Exeter.

Fog is predicted until nightfall.

Britons are enjoying a “remarkably mild” Christmas Eve as shoppers dash to buy last-minute gifts and travellers head home for the festive season.

Although conditions on Tuesday are expected to be “grey and gloomy”, it will be the warmest day of the week, with highs of up to 15C in north east Wales, according to the Met Office.

This is slightly lower than the warmest Christmas Eve on record – when a high of 15.6C was measured at Gordon Castle in Banff and in Craibstone, Aberdeenshire, in 1931.

The Midlands, north east England and north east Scotland may see some “brighter spells”, but it will be largely cloudy for most of the country, the weather service added.

In an online forecast, Met Office meteorologist Aidan McGivern said: “It’s just going to stay cloudy, a lot of low cloud covering the hills of the west, misty around the coast, drizzle here and there, particularly for north west England, and more especially western Scotland – where the rain will be persistent through the rest of the day with a strengthening south westerly wind.

“But with all of this cloud coming from the Atlantic, it is going to be a remarkably mild Christmas Eve.”

If you’re not a hitchhiker, then there are more domestic flights than ever to and from London Heathrow on British Airways for 25 December.

Manchester: four return trips with fares at £184 northbound, £115 southbound.

Newcastle: three return trips, as low as £44 northbound, £125 southbound.

Edinburgh: three return trips, from £141 northbound, £181 southbound.

Glasgow: three return trips, from £143 northbound, £145 southbound.

Some trains will run in the UK on Christmas Day – but only in the London area, and mostly as brief continuations of Christmas Eve services. They all involve London Liverpool Street, the busiest station in the country, and include:

12.01am: London Liverpool Street via Paddington and Slough to Maidenhead, arriving 12.58am.

12.07am: London Paddington via Liverpool Street to Shenfield in Essex, arriving at 1.03am.

12.07am: Bishops Stortford via Harlow Town to London Liverpool Street, arriving 12.50am.

12.14am: London Paddington via Liverpool Street to Whitechapel, arriving at 12.27am.

12.22am: London Paddington via Liverpool Street to Shenfield, arriving at 1.22am.

12.01am: Goodmayes in Essex via London Liverpool Street to Paddington, arriving at 12.35am.

On the main links to northern France from Dover, the last departure to Dunkirk on DFDS is 2pm, and to Calais on P&O Ferries at 3.05pm.

On Boxing Day, the first ferry out from Dover to Calais is scheduled for 9.10am and to Dunkirk at 10am, both on DFDS. Coming back to the UK, routes restart at 10am (from Dunkirk) and 11.20am (from Calais) on Boxing Day.

Eurotunnel’s LeShuttle from Folkestone to Calais, however, keeps going 365 days a year.

Isle of Wight ferries across the Solent will wind down around 6 or 7pm on Christmas Eve, with no sailings on 25 December.

The UK’s only hovercraft link, from Southsea in Hampshire to Ryde on the Isle of Wight, closes from 6.30pm on Christmas Eve to 6.30am on Friday 27 December.