Gatwick's chief executive has talked about the "wider strategic challenge" posed by drones.

In his statement about the disruption, Stewart Wingate says it needs to be addressed "with speed" by the aviation industry, government and all the other relevant authorities

"It cannot be right that drones can close a vital part of our national infrastructure in this way," he said.

"This is obviously a relatively new technology and we need to think through together the right solutions to make sure it cannot happen again.

"In the meantime all our focus is on sorting the current challenge and getting services back to normal for passengers."

Radio 4 PM

Labour peer Lord Harris led an independent review into London's preparedness for a terror attack in 2016.

In his report, he highlighted the potential for drones to be used to disrupt flights.

He said after he had finished his review, companies approached him saying they had the kit to deal with drones.

"I've seen it demonstrated. It's very clever," he said.

"It interferes with with signals to the drones and it either sends them back to the sender, which means you could presumably track and find out where that was happening, or it makes them spiral very slowly down to the ground."

"The reality is it's out there, it's used in other countries," he added.

Lord Harris said the government has been moving on the issue "but it's moving slowly."

"There's been a complacency about not trying to think through what you would do in this sort of eventuality," he said.

He described the delays in "taking action" today as "mind boggling".

BBC Politics

More from Stewart Wingate's statement which was handed out to reporters at the airport in the last 30 minutes.

Gatwick's chief executive said: "We hope passengers appreciate that we must and will always prioritise their safety over everything else.

"We are all working flat out to minimise inconvenience and have additional staff in both terminals assisting passengers who are waiting.

"Regrettably we are still not in a position to say when it will be safe to reopen the airport. As soon as we can we will."

Image source, Gatwick Airport

Paige Garcia from Luton lives in the US and was returning to the UK for the Christmas holidays.

She says she was left stranded on a plane at Paris Orly airport for around five hours because of the disruption at Gatwick.

“We landed at 08:30 this morning. I was asleep and I woke up and found out we were in Paris," she says.

“We were left sitting there for pretty much five hours.

“It’s not the pilot’s fault, the staff didn’t know what was going on either. We had no food, no water.

“We just had no idea if we we are going to get a flight back or even get off the plane."

Several buses were later organised to take passengers to the UK.

But Paige says she plans to take the Eurostar.

“We have coaches but we can’t really find out any information about where they are going, how they are getting there or how long it’s going to take," she says.

In total 300 to 400 passengers from diverted flights were stranded today in Paris according to the Paris airport press office.

Gatwick's chief executive officer has made his first public statement on the disruption.

Stewart Wingate said the drone flights have been "highly targeted".

He added they have "been designed to close the airport and bring maximum disruption in the run up to Christmas".

He added: "It cannot be right that drones can close a vital part of our national infrastructure in this way.

"This is obviously a relatively new technology and we need to think through together the right solutions to make sure it cannot happen again."

The government is to temporarily lift night-flying restrictions at other airports in the London area to ease the disruption at Gatwick.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling told the BBC ministers are "doing everything we can with other airports to make arrangements to get passengers incoming back in the UK but also to give passengers a chance to get out of the UK as quickly as possible".

Radio 4 PM

Deputy chief constable Serena Kennedy, lead on drones and criminality for National Police Chiefs' Council, said the police have been working with government departments for a while on the issues of drone misuse.

"We are testing equipment to make sure we understand the full capabilities of that equipment, to make sure we don't take out other equipment that's needed in relation to hospitals," she said.

"We absolutely have to put public safety number one."

She said they also faced legislative issues and there was a need to make sure the police, the private sector and the military have got the ability to do what they need in situations like today.

Image source, Nicola Braybrook

Nicola Braybrook and her family were packed and ready for their 'Christmas treat' of a holiday in the Dominican Republic when they heard about the Gatwick disruption.

Mrs Braybrook, from Northwood, near Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, said: "We have been in the house waiting all day and have now had to cancel our holiday due to some idiot and his toy.

"Our whole Christmas is ruined and our holiday over. We are furious, upset, hurt and my children are brokenhearted. Unbelievable.

"We have spent hours on the phone trying to find out what we can do, and there is nothing. No alternative flights, no offer of compensation. Nothing. We have no holiday to now go on."

Image source, Nicola Braybrook

Tim Jeans, chairman of Newquay airport and former managing director of Ryanair and Monarch Airlines, said today's disruption had been "totally unprecedented".

He said it "brings a problem with drones that we've known about into a completely different dimension".

"Never before have we seen what looks like a concerted effort to disrupt air travel in the way we're looking at today."

"Clearly now we're going to have to take a completely different approach," he said.

Asked what that might look like, he said it was possible it could involve "permanent and increased security around the perimeter of airports."

"These drones might be being controlled from hundreds of miles away," he added, saying that the "level of response" needs to reflect that.

Tom Burridge
BBC transport correspondent

Tomorrow is the busiest day for airlines during the Christmas period.

So even if Gatwick’s runway opens at some point tonight, there will be few spare seats in the morning and beyond, for those stranded.

The Government has lifted the usual ban on flights at Gatwick through the night.

So, if the runway does open, airlines will be able to start moving their planes, which were diverted to other airports last night, back into position at Gatwick. But that alone will take several hours.

Gatwick has more wiggle room to put on extra flights in this type of scenario than Heathrow. However, even if there are landing and take-off slots available, finding spare aircraft at this time of year will not be straightforward.

Staffing could be an issue too. For safety reasons, pilots and cabin crew cannot work too many hours without decent breaks.

In this type of situation airlines do have a duty of care to look after those passengers stranded at Gatwick or at other airports, until they can get them on to another flight to their final destination.

Food and accommodation should be covered. However expensive costs such as long taxi journeys might not be, and passengers stranded outside of the EU on non-EU-based airlines have fewer rights.

Image source, PA

EasyJet says it expects the disruption to continue into Friday and is advising its customers to check the status of flights using its flight tracker, external or app.

A spokesman said: "Customers on cancelled flights, will be entitled to a free of charge transfer to an alternative flight and hotel accommodation if required.

"We will also reimburse any reasonable expenses incurred by passengers who arrange their own comparable alternative transport."

He added: “Whilst the situation is outside of our control, we recognise how frustrating this is for everyone involved and would like to apologise to passengers for the disruption to their travel plans.

“The safety of its passengers and crew remains our highest priority.”

A couple's trip to New York and a family visit to a sick grandmother are among those affected.

Bob Dale
BBC Live reporter

This family are counting the cost of an abandoned holiday to Madeira.

Image source, Sabina Tagieva

Judith, who's seven months pregnant, was devastated when her daughter's flight home from the United States was cancelled, but says her boss has rescued the situation.

Emilie-Kate Owen, from Dorking, planned to fly from Gatwick to Edinburgh today - she even managed to board her flight - but is now going there by train instead.

"I got to Gatwick early this morning for a 06.50 GMT BA flight to Edinburgh," she told the BBC.

"I'm travelling with my father to Edinburgh for my grandfather's funeral tomorrow.

"We boarded the flight at 06.30.

"But then the pilot said the terminal was full and that, 'it’s about as bad as it gets here'.

"The flight was cancelled and we had to disembark, which took a while."

Image source, PA