Snow snarls post-holiday travel in Europe

LONDON: Snow and ice forced the grounding of dozens of flights in parts of Europe on Sunday, disrupting the tail end of the busy New Year holiday travel season.

Here is a roundup of some of the Western European countries affected by the winter weather conditions:

Britain

Airports in the northwestern cities of Manchester and Liverpool, central Birmingham and western Bristol reopened on Sunday after heavy snow across large parts of England forced runway closures.

In Munich, 35 flights were cancelled as a precaution out of a total of 750 departures and landings

Northern Leeds Bradford airport however said its runway would remain closed until further notice.

The snow also left some key roads in northern England shut with the rail line between northern Leeds and Halifax suspended due to the weather conditions.

Germany

Snow and black ice forced thet cancellation of dozens of flights at Frankfurt airport, Germany’s largest.

A total of 120 of some 1,990 flights at the airport in the country’s west were cancelled, with a spokesperson telling take-off and landing runways needed clearing while “de-icing the planes is also more complex and more demanding”. Poor visibility was another factor behind the annulations.

In Munich, 35 flights were cancelled as a precaution on Saturday evening out of a total of 750 departures and landings scheduled at Germany’s second largest airport, a spokesperson said.

The meteorological office warned of freezing rain on Sunday after snowfall overnight and recommended passengers avoid unnecessary travel.

Netherlands

At Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, a major European hub, 68 flights were cancelled and more than 200 were delayed due to snowy conditions, according to the airport website.

Schiphol Airport on its website also warned passengers to check the status of their flight before travelling.

The cancellations were mainly to European destinations, but long-haul flights also suffered with services scrapped to Newark and Detroit in the United States.

Spain

In Spain, travellers faced major delays of up to 3.5 hours. Some flights arriving at Madrid and Barcelona airports from European destinations were cancelled, including travel from Frankfurt, Cologne, Munich, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Liverpool, Manchester, London and Paris, according to the airports’ respective websites.

A spokeswoman for Aena, the company that operates 46 airports in Spain, said “there may be alterations to operations” due to adverse weather in other countries but could not provide any figures.

None of Spain was affected by snow or ice warnings on Sunday, but a yellow-level warning for wind was in place for parts of the north.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2025