Heavy snow hits air travel, roads in Europe

AP – A pedestrian walks a dog during a snow-fall in central London, Saturday, Dec., 18, 2010. Plunging temperatures …

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By ANGELA DOLAND, Associated Press – 1 hr 7 mins ago

PARIS – Heavy snow on Sunday shut down European airport runways, forced fast trains to slow down and left cars skidding through icy, slushy streets on a weekend where many people were trying to head home for the holidays.

London's Heathrow Airport stopped accepting arrivals. Frankfurt airport canceled around 40 percent of flights.

Paris' Charles de Gaulle cut air traffic by a quarter as heavy snow blanketed the French capital — a rarity that has occurred several times in recent days during an unusually cold winter. Many passengers slept overnight in makeshift dormitories there, at Amsterdam's airport and at Heathrow, Europe's busiest hub for air passengers.

"The bars were open and some people were drinking and got quite nasty," passenger Sue Kerslake, who was stuck at Heathrow, told the BBC.

Heathrow said no planes would land on its runways on Sunday and that only a small number of flights would likely depart.

There was chaos in the tunnels leading from the underground station to Heathrow terminals, with hundreds of travelers told by airport staff to go back and call their airlines for updates.

Singer Lily Allen was among those caught in Heathrow disruptions, forced to disembark from her plane after a fully boarded flight was canceled. Rail services and road travelers continued to face disruption as a result of the snow — on the main M25 orbital route around London an overturned tanker was causing long delays for motorists.

Icy conditions in Britain caused three deaths on Saturday, police said. A teenage girl was killed in a sledding accident, while a mother and her 10-year-old son died in a traffic crash.

In northern France, TGV fast trains were running slower than usual, tacking about 20 minutes on to each journey. Eurostar trains to Britain and Thalys trains to Belgium and the Netherlands were also affected.

In Italy, Florence's airport remained closed Sunday morning due to the snow and ice storms that blanketed Tuscany.

At Frankfurt airport, Germany's biggest, more than 500 flights were canceled Sunday out of a planned total of 1,330 departures and arrivals.

While the runways at Frankfurt itself were clear, flights were disrupted by problems elsewhere in Europe, with some passengers left waiting for their flights since Friday. Germany's Lufthansa canceled several domestic and regional services to and from its main hub, though long-haul flights were little affected.

In Amsterdam, Schiphol spokeswoman Mirjam Snoerwang said the airport's snow plow teams had cleared three runways, and planes were arriving and leaving. However, because of problems at other European airports some 30 flights had been canceled by late morning.

In Scandinavia, where temperatures in some places dipped to below -20 degrees Celsius (-4 F), meteorologists warned snow was piling up on the icy roads following heavy snowfall and strong winds.

While airports were operating normally, several long-distance trains were delayed, and many commuter train departures around the city of Malmo in southern Sweden were canceled.

Horse racing meetings and dozens of soccer games in England and Scotland were called off as a result of the conditions, including a high-profile match scheduled for Sunday in London between Chelsea and Manchester United.

Bad weather also forced the Dutch football association to postpone the league classic between archrivals Ajax and Feyenoord.

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David Stringer in London, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Malin Rising in Stockholm and Mike Corder in the Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this report.

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Heavy snow hits air travel, roads across Europe

AP – A pedestrian crosses a road during a snow-fall in central London, Saturday, Dec. 18, 2010. Plunging temperatures …

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By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press – 1 hr 3 mins ago

LONDON – Blizzards and freezing temperatures shut down runways, train tracks and highways across Europe on Saturday, disrupting flights and leaving shivering drivers stranded on roadsides.

Airports in Britain, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark reported cancelations or delays to flights.

London's Gatwick airport closed its runway — despite the efforts of 150 staff using 47 snow plows, while British Airways suspended all flights from Heathrow.

"Heathrow is fully operational but we are expecting more snow and planning for the worst," the airport, Europe's busiest, said in a statement. "BA passengers must stay at home as all BA flights are canceled. At this time there are no significant delays at other terminals."

Hundreds of motorists were left stranded on the major M6 route in northwestern England following a deluge, prompting police patrols to offer food and water to drivers.

Darron Burness, of Britain's Automobile Association, said conditions on U.K. roads were treacherous. "One of the biggest problems is that large amounts of snow are falling very quickly on to frozen surfaces, making driving hazardous," he said.

In Italy, the Autostrada of the Sun — the country's main north-south highway — was jammed with hundreds of vehicles, whose chilly occupants slept in their cars, vans or trucks. Though snow had mainly cleared or melted early Saturday, the highway was still closed in one direction, with traffic backed up for nearly 25 miles (40 kilometers).

The snowfall also forced high-speed trains to bypass Florence's central Santa Maria Novella station, stopping in suburban stations instead.

Paris was sprinkled with a light coat of snow overnight, as many people prepared to set off on their Christmas vacations. More snow was predicted Saturday, leading civil aviation authorities to cancel 15 percent of flights at Charles de Gaulle airport between 4 p.m. and 11 p.m. local time.

Many flights were also canceled in northeastern France, where snow already blanketed the ground, and services were also canceled at the airports in the cities of Nantes and Rennes.

Some 200 flights were canceled at Frankfurt airport, Germany's biggest, a spokesman for airport operator Fraport said. He said that was largely to do with disruption to schedules caused by problems elsewhere in Europe, while all runways at Frankfurt itself were clear.

Mark Seltzer, a weather forecaster with Britain's Met Office, said the U.K. may experience its coldest December on record. "Temperatures will struggle to get over freezing and although the snow should ease off tonight, it will return to eastern areas on Sunday," he said.

Police in Leicester, central England, said the snowy weather had helped uncover a cannabis factory in the city. Officers raided the premises after spotting that snow had melted on the building's roof as a result of heat from industrial-strength lights used in the cultivation of the drug.

Horse racing meetings and dozens of soccer games in England and Scotland were called off as a result of the conditions, including a high profile match scheduled for Sunday in London between Chelsea and Manchester United.

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Associated Press writers Angela Doland in Paris, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Frances D'Emilio in Rome contributed to this report

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