Posts Tagged "chaos"
Snow Extends European Travel Chaos as UK Seeks Advice on Harsher Winters – Bloomberg
Snow forced European airports including London Heathrow to scrap flights for a fourth day, prompting Britain to seek scientific advice on whether the heaviest early falls in 17 years show winter is turning colder.
Tens of thousands of people trying to head home or on vacation for Christmas since the weekend remain stranded as Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, operates at one-third of capacity, according to owner BAA Ltd., while Frankfurt airport was closed this morning as more snow fell, Fraport AG said.
Britain will ask its chief scientific adviser if blizzards that began last month, coupled with the worst cold snap in two decades last winter, provides evidence for a “step change” that would justify increased spending on cold-weather gear, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond told lawmakers. Heathrow, which handled 66 million travelers in 2009, has 69 ice-clearing vehicles, less than twice the number at Oslo, which handles a quarter of that passenger total and suffers 60 days of snow a year on average.
“If we’re going to face week after week of these kinds of conditions, which I haven’t seen in my lifetime in this country, we’ll have to have different equipment, different procedures in the future,” BAA Chief Executive Officer Colin Matthews said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s The Pulse.
Snow and freezing weather have hindered European air travel since November, with the latest heavy falls hitting the U.K. on Dec. 18 and up to 20 centimeters (8 inches) deposited yesterday. Airlines including Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Qantas Airways Ltd. and Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. have canceled flights.
Shovels, Diggers
Heathrow, the world’s second-busiest airport after Atlanta, will operate with only one of its two runways open for most of today, forcing British Airways Plc to scrap 165 flights at its main hub, according to the carrier’s website.
“It can’t be beyond the wit of man, surely, to find the shovels, the diggers, the snowplows or whatever it takes to clear the snow out from under the planes,” London Mayor Boris Johnson told the British Broadcasting Corp. yesterday.
BAA spokeswoman Cathy Mussert said the company was advising passengers to check that their flights were operating. “There could be further delays and cancelations,” she said.
London Gatwick opened as planned at 6 a.m. with 600 flights scheduled for the day, according to its website. The world’s busiest single-runway airport has suffered less disruption after taking delivery of two extra snow-clearing machines that were ordered after last winter’s freeze.
Investment Plan
The additional plows took the total at Gatwick to 49, with three more due to arrive by the weekend. An 8 million-pound ($12 million) investment program by next winter will result in 95 vehicles at the airport, which was sold by BAA to New York-based Global Infrastructure Partners for 1.5 billion pounds in 2009.
Frankfurt, Europe’s third-busiest airport, shut all three runways before reopening two, spokesman Juergen Harrer said, with northern parts of Germany likely to receive as much as 10 centimeters of fresh snow during the day, according to the German Weather Service.
Deutsche Lufthansa AG routed long-haul jets to Munich and deployed additional wide-bodies to Dusseldorf and Zurich.
“It’s unbelievable,” Thomas Jachnow, a spokesman for Cologne-based Lufthansa, said in a telephone interview. “We all thought it would get better and then this new wave of ice and snow hit us. Any optimism that our flight plan would normalize in coming days has dissipated.”
Late Opening
In Paris, Roissy-Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports were set to begin the day with at least 28 canceled flights before 7 a.m., data tracker FlightStats.com said. The airports stayed open late yesterday to clear a backlog and Aeroports de Paris said the delay at Charles de Gaulle was two to three hours.
“It is necessary to allow as many airplanes as possible to fly as long as weather conditions remain favorable,” French Transport Minister Thierry Mariani said in a statement.
London’s City airport is open today with some delays and cancelations, spokeswoman Geraldine Nolan said by telephone. Dublin airport is closed until 5 p.m. local time.
U.S. carriers such as United Continental Holdings Inc. and AMR Corp.’s American Airlines waived ticket-change fees for passengers traveling to or from parts of Europe.
Qantas canceled flights from London and turned back others headed to the U.K., affecting 3,000 passengers, Simon Rushton, a spokesman for the Sydney-based carrier said. Cathay Pacific said it expects to operate three scheduled flights to London from Hong Kong through early tomorrow morning. The carrier’s four flights from Heathrow today are also expected to go ahead.
Eurostar Warning
On the rails, Channel Tunnel service Eurostar Group Ltd. placed speed restrictions on high-speed lines, adding up to two hours to journey times, according to a statement on its website.
Eurostar, which links London to Paris and Brussels by train, asked passengers not already at stations to stay at home and urged all customers to cancel non-essential travel. The service isn’t accepting new bookings through Dec. 24.
Most other trains through France were slower than normal, though 90 percent were arriving less than 1 hour late, according to train operator SNCF.
Deutsche Bahn AG spokeswoman Kathrin Fellenberg said the winter weather continued to disrupt Germany’s national railroad network, causing numerous train delays and cancelations.
To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Spillane in London at cspillane3@bloomberg.net; Steven Rothwell in London at srothwell@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Colin Keatinge at ckeatinge@bloomberg.net; Kenneth Wong kwong11@bloomberg.net
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Read MoreTravel chaos thwarts Kiwis' Christmas plans – TVNZ
updated 06:23
Published: 9:36PM Sunday December 19, 2010 Source: ONE News/Reuters
A passenger sleeps at Heathrow Airport – Source: Reuters Kiwis trying to get home in time for Christmas could have their travel plans ruined due to blizzard conditions in much of northern Europe.
Arctic conditions have closed airports and disrupted travel at airports across Europe at one of the busiest times of the year.
Britain’s busiest airport, Heathrow, was not accepting inbound flights and said only a few planes would be leaving because of ice on the runway.
London’s second busiest airport, Gatwick, was open but thousands of passengers were facing delays and cancellations, as they were at most other British airports.
The BBC reported thousands of travellers were stranded at Heathrow airport, and hundreds more at Gatwick.
In Germany, Frankfurt airport operator Fraport said 470 flights had been cancelled and a worsening of weather conditions was expected.
Snow also blanketed northern France, delaying trains and forcing flights to be cancelled.
ONE News understands there may be several hundred Kiwis trying to get out of London in time for Christmas.
There is understood to be a shortage of hotels in the area, forcing some to stay in pricey accommodation.
Wellingtonian Gareth Rowson said he had spent six Christmases in Europe away from family, but was hoping to spend this Christmas in New Zealand with his two new nieces.
“So far the trip has cost over NZ$7,000 just on flights and we are yet to leave the island (Guernsey) or pay for the extra charges for the new long-haul flight,” Rowson said.
“To quote my mother ‘Mother Nature is in charge’ and we can only hope to make Christmas on time.”
One woman told TVNZ her sister and brother-in-law are among those to have had their plans ruined.
“They were meant to be coming to New Zealand from December 20 to January 1 but their plane could not depart due to Heathrow being closed and also Amsterdam Airport being closed where they were catching the connecting flight from,” Meera Sisodia said.
“They have now cancelled their trip and have luckily got a refund on their flights.”
She said because the couple has to be back at work early January, the shortened time would have mean just seven days in New Zealand which wouldn’t have been worth it.
“This will be a very sad Christmas and New Year for our family as they haven’t been back to New Zealand for three years and they had planned and told us about their trip in May,” Sisodia said
Heathrow airport told the BBC that “a few thousand spent the night in the terminals”.
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