Heavy snowfall over the weekend has caused severe disruption at several European airports, with London’s Heathrow being the worst affected.
In an unprecedented move, Heathrow, the world’s busiest airport, closed both its runways on Saturday and remained closed on Sunday as the airport authority attempted to make its runways safe for operation. Thousands of stranded travelers slept overnight in the airport’s terminals throughout the weekend.
More than 200,000 passengers were expected to depart from Heathrow on Sunday. One runway opened on Monday morning with the airport operating very limited arrivals and departures. Over one million passengers are due to travel from the airport this week.
Up to eight inches of snow fell in parts of the U.K. over the weekend. The travel disruption is set to continue as further snow flurries and freezing fog are expected this week.
The severe weather has also affected operations Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris with up to 40% of flight cancelations. Italy’s Florence airport was also closed following heavy snowstorms. Despite its runway not being affected by snow and ice, Frankfurt airport, Germany’s largest hub, has also cancelled hundreds of flights due to the problems facing other European airports and the displacement of aircraft and crew.
Rail and road travel across Europe is also severely disrupted due to the icy conditions. The weather will leave hundreds of thousands of travelers across Europe stranded ahead of the holiday period.
This week’s severe weather follows the unprecedented heavy snowfall at the end of November that caused widespread closures of airport across Europe. It is the third major disruption to European airspace after the volcanic ash crisis earlier this year caused a Europe-wide shutdown for several days.
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