Weather conditions at London Gatwick Airport saw more than 1,000 passengers diverted to other airports last night as the main runway underwent repairs.

Plans had been in place to utilise an emergency runway at the airport during the planned upgrade work, but weather conditions made this impossible.

A spokesperson explained: “During the night, the northern emergency runway is used for both take-off and landing.

“As this runway does not have an instrument landing system, pilots must land the aircraft manually by sight and they can only do this if weather conditions and visibility are clear.”

However, poor visibility saw flights operated by British Airways, easyJet and Thomson diverted.

A total of 24 flights were redirected in total, heading to Bristol, Luton and Stansted airports.

Three short-haul British Airways flights out of Gatwick were also affected.