Snow and ice disrupt pre-Christmas travel in Europe

Europe saw little respite on Sunday from the Arctic conditions that closed airports and disrupted travel over the weekend before Christmas, traditionally one of the busiest times of the year. London’s Heathrow, the world’s busiest international airport, which was forced to close both its runways for much of Saturday because of heavy snow, was not accepting inbound flights on Sunday and said only a few planes would be leaving. About 30 metric tons of snow were being shifted away from each parking stand around the planes, but ice was making it dangerous for the aircraft to be moved. “There comes a point at which the weather has such an impact that it’s simply not safe to fly,” Andrew Teacher, spokesman for airport operator BAA, told BBC television. The runway at London’s second busiest airport Gatwick was open but thousands of passengers faced delays and cancellations, as they were at most other British airports. A plane bound for Islamabad was stranded on the runway at Birmingham airport for more than six hours. “We’ve had about three or four incidents where people have had panic attacks, chest pains, vomiting. They won’t let us off the plane,” passenger Marium Hassain told BBC television. In Germany, Frankfurt airport operator Fraport said 560 flights had been canceled by Sunday afternoon and a large snow front coming in could mean more cancellations. At Germany’s second largest airport in Munich, about 75 flights were canceled on Sunday out of 1,100 in all, mostly due to problems at other airports such as Amsterdam, Paris and Brussels, a spokesman said. Planes destined for London were being diverted to Munich and other German airports. Many trains were also delayed or canceled and the speed limit for intercity train travel was restricted across Germany. Snow blanketed northern France and authorities mobilized light armored personnel carriers in some areas to help motorists stranded on roadsides by the white stuff. Around 700,000 people had been expected to travel through Paris’ two main airports over the weekend. But at the biggest, Roissy Charles de Gaulle, 40 percent of flights were canceled and over 5,000 people were stranded. At Orly, the city’s second airport, 20 percent of flights were canceled. In Paris, the Eiffel Tower was closed because of the snow and a pop concert by Lady Gaga due to be held on Sunday was canceled because restrictions on heavy trucks in the Paris region prevented the show’s equipment from arriving on time.