THE runway at Bournemouth Airport was closed for several hours due to ice on Sunday. 

A TUI flight to Lanzarote that was due to take off at 9.20am on Sunday was delayed by around seven hours as a result.

At around 4.40pm on Sunday, TUI said the flight had departed and was on its way to Lanzarote. 

FlightRadar showed the flight left Bournemouth at 4.07pm.

During the closure, Bournemouth Airport said the situation was being kept under “constant review”.

Read more: Live updates on snow in Dorset today

A passenger onboard the plane told the Daily Echo: "Captain has been very good with updates and took questions from anyone that had them."

The runway reopened at around 2.40pm.

Three Ryanair flights were scheduled to take off later on Sunday to Lanzarote, Malaga and Alicante.

Passengers were urged to check in as normal.

Speaking earlier, a spokesman for Bournemouth Airport said: "The airport is currently closed due to ice on the runway.

“The ice is being treated and the situation is being kept under constant review.

"This has delayed the scheduled 0920 TUI departure to Lanzarote.

The spokesperson added: “There are three other flights scheduled later today with Ryanair to Lanzarote (1415), Malaga (1835) and Alicante (1935).

“Passengers for these services are asked to check-in as normal and check with their airline for the latest information."

As reported, the Met Office issued a weather warning for snow and ice shortly before 10am on Sunday.

The warning for Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole and the rest of Dorset was in place until 1pm.

Snow has been seen widely across Dorset today including locations such as Corfe Castle, Wareham, Langton Matravers, Wimborne, Bournemouth town centre and Upton.