Irish white Christmas brings air travel chaos - SEE PHOTOS

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The closure of Dublin Airport on Thursday morning brings further uncertainty for those attempting to fly home for Christmas following long delays, Wednesday to U.S. bound flights, as well as European.

Dublin Airport was forced to close after braking test showed that the runway was not safe. It is suspected that it will reopen at lunchtime. All other airports in Ireland continue to operate however delays are likely.

It is hoped that extra flights to North America, Britain and Europe can be provided from Dublin this afternoon in an attempt to clear the backlog of passengers.

Irish airline, Aer Lingus, said “weather dependent” they felt confident that they could get people home in time for Christmas. The airline added 17 extra flights to their schedule on Wednesday. They also plan to add an extra round trip flight to the east court of North America in an attempt to clear the backlog. Similarly Ryanair added 14 extra flights.

Aer Lingus spokesman, Declan Carney reported that they were using larger planes on some routes. He said the backlogs at Heathrow, Paris and Amsterdam had been mostly cleared and the airline was assisting passengers in getting from Frankfurt to Dublin.

Transport on the ground, such as buses and trains, are still running but with some delays and some cancellations. Motorists are been warned of the danger of driving as the snow has now become compacted and the subzero temperatures continue.

John Eagleton, a weather forecaster with Met Eireann said the coming days would see dry weather around the country. He said the days running up to Christmas would be bright and sunny with freezing fog in the midlands and sub-zero temperatures at night.

Forecasters have said that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day would be dry however St Stephen’s Day will bring wet and windy weather from the west. This is likely to fall as snow. Met Eireann is calling this “severe weather of another nature”. They predict that the heavy rainfall along with the thawing of snow and ice will cause flooding.