While Storm Eowyn caused havoc for thousands of air passengers whose flights were cancelled today, there was some good news for those heading in from the US. Powerful jet stream winds over the Atlantic Ocean have slashed journey times between the US and Britain by 45 minutes and are on course to smash flight records. British Airways flight BA from Las Vegas to Heathrow reached near-record speeds of mph on Wednesday β more than mph faster than the average transatlantic speed, according to data from Flight Radar.
The subsonic record flight time was set in on a New York to London service that lasted four hours and 56 minutes β and there could yet be a new record in the coming days. The jet stream is a wind at about 30 to 40, feet that travels from west to east, meandering across the Atlantic with speeds of about to miles an hour.
A Met Office map shows the jet stream reaching speeds of up to mph above the Atlantic. Airline companies will use this to pick up speed and save on fuel as they travel across the Atlantic, which is why it takes longer to fly to New York from London then vice versa. BBC weather forecaster Simon King said the jet stream this week had been 'supercharged' with winds speeds in excess of mph off the coast of America.
Because of this, a number of flights coming into the capital from New York, which normally take around seven hours to complete, were landing ahead of schedule. Professor Liz Bentley, chief executive at Royal Meteorological Society, said: 'The jet stream in winter is often stronger leading to more storms forming, and its position is often closer to the UK so those developing systems are directed towards our shores.
Passengers at Edinburgh Airport today, where 74 departures and 72 arrivals have been axed. It comes as millions of people in Britain were urged to stay today at home as mph winds pose a danger to life and cause travel disruption. Rail services, flights and ferries have been axed, with rare red weather warnings in place on Friday in Scotland and Northern Ireland as Eowyn batters the country.
