Hundreds of unexpected passengers landed at Glasgow Prestwick Airport when London Heathrow was closed due to heavy snow.

In total more than a thousand people travelling on British Airways long-haul flights from America, Africa and the Far East had to disembark in Ayrshire and stay in local hotels until the following day, by which time Heathrow had reopened.

Glasgow Prestwick’s excellent weather record meant it was relatively unaffected by the wintery conditions across much of the United Kingdom, and therefore ready to handle the additional traffic at short notice.

Mark Rodwell, Chief Executive of Glasgow Prestwick, confirmed that the airport’s own schedule did not suffer due to the weather, apart from one cancelled flight which had been bound for snowy Stansted.

The airport’s previous experience in handling large numbers of passengers for major events meant staff were ready for the influx of passengers from New York, San Francisco, Peking, Tokyo, Cairo and Cape Town.

Mr Rodwell added: "We have an excellent weather record and plenty of space for these large aircraft to park so we were delighted to accommodate these diverted flights.

"All our employees including office staff were drafted in to help and they performed brilliantly under a lot of pressure."