AROUND 1,000 passengers were diverted to Liverpool airport last night as heavy snow closed a runway at Manchester.

Disruption was caused for around an hour and half while workers cleared the landing strip.

A spokesman for Liverpool John Lennon airport said: “There were 11 flights diverted to us because of the snow. These were coming in from places including Zurich, Fuerteventura, Helsinki, London Heathrow, Edinburgh, Paris and Southampton.

“Thompson, Easyjet and Fin Air were just some of the airlines effected.

“We are always more than happy to come to the aid of an airline if they need to divert their flight elsewhere, and at least we’re not very far from Manchester, so on this occasion it wasn’t too far for the passengers to travel.

“In Liverpool we had some snow, but nothing like what they had over in Manchester, so we’ve not been affected by it at all, we’ve just been extremely busy.”

A spokesman for Manchester Airport added: “We had heavy snow fall very quickly and when that happens you have to wait for it to stop before you can start trying to clear it.

“We had to suspend operations at 4.15pm for about an hour and a half and a large portion of the flights were diverted to Liverpool.”

Passengers logging onto Manchester Airport’s website to find out information about the diverted flights were instructed to call a premium rate number, only to then be told to phone the airline.