Manchester Airport flights cancelled as Hurricane Milton smashes into Florida

Flights to Florida from Manchester Airport have been cancelled on Thursday as Hurricane Milton made landfall in the US.

A number of airports in Florida are closed to commercial operations, such as Orlando International, Melbourne Orlando International and Tampa International.

Aviation analytics company Cirium said 11 out of the 14 flights scheduled to operate between the UK and Florida on Wednesday were cancelled, with further cancellations today.

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Virgin Atlantic has cancelled a number of flights because of “adverse weather conditions expected to be caused by Hurricane Milton”, with a state of emergency declared in Florida.

The airline said a further 10 flights have been called off on Thursday, involving Heathrow, Manchester, Orlando and Tampa.

Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said tourists in Florida should follow the advice of local authorities, adding: “If your flight to Florida has been cancelled, compensation won’t be payable as the hurricane is an extraordinary event outside of airlines’ control.

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“Airlines do however have a legal duty of care and should provide assistance to affected passengers, such as food and overnight accommodation if required, as well as offering prompt rerouting to get people to their final destination when it is safe to do so, including with other airlines if necessary."

Flight data website Flightradar24 said two flights to Orlando scheduled to depart from Manchester Airport this morning were both cancelled. They were Virgin Atlantic and Aer Lingus flights.

Hurricane Milton has made landfall as a Category 3 storm, with the Met Office warning it will be “dangerous and destructive” as thousands of UK holidaymakers had flights to Florida cancelled.

Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida at about 8.30pm local time. The US National Hurricane Centre reports the hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 120mph.

About 90 minutes after making landfall, Milton was centred about 20 miles (30 kilometres) northeast of Sarasota and had weakened slightly with maximum sustained winds of 110mph (175ph), becoming a Category 2 storm, the hurricane centre reported.

The US National Weather Service has issued the highest level of flood warning to more than two million residents within Milton’s path.

Blackouts from the damaging storm have plunged more than 2 million people into darkness so far, as per the electrical fault website poweroutage.us.