BA flight 112 completed its journey from New York JFK to Heathrow in just under five hours on Sunday (9 February).

The Boeing 747 aircraft hit speeds of 825mph during the 3,500-mile crossing, arriving 80 minutes ahead of schedule at 4.43am.

At four hours 56 minutes, the journey beat Norwegian’s previous record of five hours 13 minutes according to online flight tracking service Flightradar24.

Virgin Atlantic was narrowly pipped to the new record with its flights VS4 and VS46 completing the same route on Sunday in four hours 57 minutes and four hours 59 minutes respectively.

“We always prioritise safety over speed records,” said BA in a statement. “Our highly trained pilots made the most of the conditions to get customers back to London well ahead of time.”

According to BBC Weather, the jet stream reached speeds of 260mph on Sunday morning, accelerated by the winds from Storm Ciara.

However, despite helping send flight records tumbling at the weekend, Storm Ciara caused widespread disruption to flying schedules across the UK.

Hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled on Sunday, with knock-on effects expected into Monday and Tuesday (10-11 February).

BA has offered passengers flying short-haul to or from Heathrow or Gatwick on Monday the opportunity to rebook onto later flights.

Virgin, meanwhile, offered passengers due to fly on Sunday from Heathrow or Gatwick the chance to rebook onto flights through 8 March.

Around 300 flights were cancelled at Heathrow on Sunday, while easyJet was forced to make widespread cancellations at Gatwick.