As most of the country is covered in snow (although there is a curious snow-less bubble that is Manchester at the moment) many of you will be clearing snow or preparing to clear snow in an attempt to prevent the chaos that stopped traffic and closed schools last year. However, no one will have prepared for the snow like Heathrow Airport this year; it has invested an extra half a million pounds in equipment so that the airport won’t have to shut during prolonged periods of snow and ice this winter.

The country is facing extremely cold weather even earlier this season so the airport has made this move to reassure passengers it expects to stay open throughout the worst of the weather. It’s promised it has a fleet of more than 60 snow ploughs and de-icing vehicles at the ready to clear runways and taxiways when snow arrives.

The preparation by Heathrow’s specialist teams started at the end of last winter. While London ran out of grit last winter, the airport insists it has enough highly concentrated de-icing fluid to keep runways open this year.

Director of airside Colin Wood said: “As the world’s busiest international airport it’s absolutely vital we are well prepared and our team do an excellent job often in quite severe conditions. While we stayed open last winter, we won’t rest on our laurels and promise that we’ll be ready, waiting and doing everything we can to make every journey better for our passengers.”