More flight delays as Europe hit by snow

Hundreds of fights were canceled in Britain, France and Germany Monday as snow and ice blanketed Western Europe.                 

London's Heathrow airport canceled about 130 flights, 10 percent of the daily total, compared to 20 percent on Sunday.                                    

Flights have been disrupted since Friday at Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, which has seen long lines and stranded passengers camping out on its terminal floors.                                    

Heathrow says it has spent millions improving its winter resilience since the airport was virtually shut down by snow for several days in December 2010. But it says low visibility means it must leave bigger gaps between planes, triggering delays and cancelations.                

Forty percent of flights were canceled at Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports in Paris.                     

Frankfurt airport, Germany's largest, told the dpa news agency Monday that 180 flights had been cancelled because of icy conditions caused by freezing rain overnight.                

In Munich, which saw 13 centimeters (more than 5 inches) of snow overnight, another 200 flights were cancelled, and long delays were expected at both airports.                      

In northern Germany, slick roads outside Berlin caused a stretch of a major highway to be closed down for the Monday morning commute, and the high-speed train that runs through Brussels from Paris to Germany was experiencing long delays.                               

British domestic trains and Eurostar services from France and Belgium to London also were disrupted, and hundreds of schools across Britain were closed.                  

In France, the civil aviation authority DGAC said it expected to cancel 40 percent of flights from and to Paris's Orly and Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airports in a preventive measure following heavy snowfall on Sunday.                   

Unrelenting snowfalls have caused unprecedented chaos in Russia. Over the past week, the country has seen scores of traffic accidents, flight delays and, in some cases, the complete isolation of some remote settlements and towns.   

Snow in northern China has forced the cancellation of more than 100 flights and the closure of dozens of highways, authorities said Sunday.                          

Beijing Capital International Airport’s official website said a total of 111 flights were cancelled at the facility, including 16 international ones.            

Another 68 flights were delayed, with 11 of those on international routes.             

More than 40 highways in northern China were closed due to the snow, the government’s official weather website said. No accidents were reported. 


REUTERS/LBCI