HEAVY fog has caused "cancellations and chaos" at an airport this afternoon.

It comes as passengers at Southend Airport face a long wait with all flights this afternoon experiencing delays or cancellations.

A flight to Groningen due to leave at 2.45pm is now expected to depart just after 5pm, a 3.30pm flight to Amsterdam will now be leaving from Stansted.

Information for planes due to leave for Barcelona a 6.10pm and Amsterdam at 6.25pm remain unavailable.

One passenger due to travel on the Barcelona flight, who wished to remain anonymous, contacted the Echo furious at the "lack of information from airlines."

She said: "The queue here is absolutely ridiculous, I have never seen anything like this.

"Nothing seems to be leaving, and we are in the dark on this. It's chaos here, as there are only two people on the easyJet desk who are having to deal with people wanting refunds."

This morning flights to Rennes and Geneva were cancelled, a flight to Caen was delayed by more than three hours.

A 1pm flight leaving Southend for Amsterdam was diverted to Luton.

In a tweet sent this morning, the airport said: "Please be aware that due to fog today flights are subject to delays and cancellations."

A spokesman for easyJet said: “Due to freezing fog and related Air Traffic Control restrictions at London Southend Airport today, easyJet, like other airlines has had to cancel 9 flights. We strongly advise passengers due to fly with us to or from London Southend today to check the status of their flights on our Flight Tracker page at www.easyjet.com/en/flight-tracker for real-time information.

“All passengers due to travel on cancelled flights have been given the option of transferring their flight free of charge or obtaining a refund at www.easyjet.com and we are providing hotel accommodation for those who need it.” 

The spokesman added: “While these circumstances are outside of the airline’s control, easyJet apologises for any inconvenience caused and would like to reassure passengers that we are doing everything possible to minimise the disruption.”

“The safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew is always easyJet's highest priority.”

A spokeswoman for Southend Airport said: "

"Due to extreme fog we've unfortunately had numerous cancellations and delays today.  

"As always we'd advise people planning to use London Southend Airport to check with their airlines for the latest information before travelling."