Snowfall continues to hamper European air travel

Sun, 19 Dec 2010

Frankfurt/Berlin - Snowfall and icy conditions continued to hamper European air travel on Sunday, including hundreds of flight cancellations at Frankfurt airport, a major international hub.

Early in the day, 450 of Frankfurt's 1,300 scheduled departures and landings had already been canceled, an airport spokeswoman said. She was unable to confirm how many hundred passengers were waiting for their flights.

"The flight timetables are all messed up," the spokeswoman said. "There's no end in sight yet, as we are expecting more snowfall."

Travelers remained calm early Sunday, in contrast to the previous day when police had to be called in as frustrated Lufthansa passengers lost their patience with major delays at the check-in counters.

Other German airports also experienced delays and cancellations. Around 50 flights were canceled in Munich, where 200 passengers had spent the night on camp beds.

In neighboring Belgium, around 1,500 long-distance travelers were stuck at Brussels airport overnight, diverted from London's Heathrow terminals where British Airways canceled all flights Saturday.

The travelers, from countries including China, South Korea, Kuwait and the US, had to remain in the transit area as they did not have valid visas to enter Belgium, an airport spokesman said.

Heathrow airport remained severely hampered by snowfall on Sunday.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/358870,hamper-european-air-travel.html.