SCOTS airports say they hope that passenger misery caused by grounded planes thanks to the snow will be eased by early next week.

Travellers faced further flight headaches as nearly three in four flights out of Glasgow and Edinburgh were cancelled on Friday despite both saying they were operational with runways and taxiways clear of snow.

Edinburgh Airport said they would be back in business on Saturday but admitted that more cancellations were expected with Ryanair and Easyjet confirming further cancellations in the morning.

Both Easyjet and Ryanair cancelled all flights running out of Edinburgh and Glasgow airports on Friday. Easyjet said there were issues in getting staff to the airports because of the weather.

At one point there were 50 out of 71 scheduled flights cancelled out of Glasgow Airport yesterday, while it was 134 out of 181 out of Edinburgh.

The Herald:

Only eight out of 44 flights had been cancelled out of Aberdeen Airport since 3pm on Friday. At the start of the morning there had been more than 20 cancelled.

Glasgow Airport sources said they hoped that any backlog be dealt with by Monday. Edinburgh sources hoped it would be by early next week.

A Glasgow Airport spokesman aid: “The extreme weather conditions of the last 72 hours have seen the airport experience record levels of snow.

“Airport staff have worked continuously through the night to clear the runway, wider airfield and passenger walkways.

"The runways and taxiways are cleared and ready to go. What we have now though is cancellations from the airlines. It is the airlines decision whether to fly today.

"Given there is a large tailback of flights from the last few days it is going to take a couple of days to get back up to full capacity in terms of services.

“We continue to urge passengers to check the status of their flights with their airlines and to only travel to the airport if safe to do so.”

Edinburgh Airport said weather warnings suggests no significant snow there over night and it would be open for business on Saturday.

They said they had confirmation from airlines that "most" intended to fly a full schedule on Saturday including British Airways,Jet2.com & FlyBe.

But they warned that due to weather disruption at other European airports, there have been some cancellations and may be more tomorrow morning.

An airport spokesman said: "We understand that the situation can be frustrating and we continue to thank passengers for their ongoing patience & support.

"Weather warnings remain in place and the safety of our passengers & our staff is our priority. We ask people to make safe decisions with their travel."

Easyjet said that flights scheduled to depart were proactively cancelled "due to the adverse weather forecast, allowing customers to plan alternative travel arrangements before arriving at the airport".

An Easyjet spokeswoman said: "The safety and wellbeing of those who get our aircraft flying is our highest priority and due to the weather warnings it has not been safe for all staff to travel to the airports today (Friday).

The Herald:

"We are doing everything possible to minimise the disruption for our customers including providing hotel rooms and meals for those passengers affected by the cancellations.

“Customers on cancelled flights have been provided the option of transferring their flight free of charge or obtaining a refund."Flybe which cancelled a number of flights out of Scotland said: "Flybe is doing everything possible to ensure continuation of service and to return to normal operations as soon as safely possible within the current ever-changing adverse weather conditions at many airports.

“Due to the adverse weather that is being experienced and forecasted over the next few days with the potential to impact travel across large parts of the UK, airports may either close temporarily or restrict the number of arriving and departing flights.

“Flybe, like every airline, has minimum acceptable weather conditions in which we can safely operate.

“Please be assured that we will be doing our best to ensure that flights operate as normal, taking into consideration any adverse weather conditions.

“The safety of our passengers and crew remains our number one priority at all times."