Snow, ice and freezing cold weather was hitting road, rail and air networks across northern Europe for a third consecutive day Monday, leaving hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded, retailers facing lower sales and airlines and airports facing a big bill for the disruption.
The U.K., France, Germany and the Netherlands are among the worst hit by the freezing weather, which is set to continue right up until Christmas, according to forecasters.
In London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Brussels, flights were cancelled and airports warned of backlogs spilling into next week, with snow and ice frustrating travel plans across Europe on the last weekend before Dec 25.
Paris, where snow was still falling Monday morning, was one of the worst hit cities. Airport operator Aeroports de Paris said no flights would land in Paris Monday morning. Only one long-haul flight runway was in operation at Roissy it said.
Air France (AF.FR) said big delays were expected all day to its flights from Paris and there could be more cancellations.
The city's public transport operator RATP said that about 40 out of 50 bus lines were suspended.
Train operator SNCF said national lines are functioning, but there are delays because of speed restrictions due to the snow. Some local lines, particularly in Normandy, are shut down, it said.
Eurocontrol, the umbrella organization for air traffic control across 38 countries, said Paris Orly, De Gaulle and Le Bourget had no flights Monday morning, while Frankfurt and Berlin Tegel in Germany were suffering heavy delays.
Fraport AG (FRA.XE), the operator of Frankfurt airport, said about 300 flights are expected to be canceled out of the 1,300 flights scheduled Monday. About 900 of 2,700 scheduled flights were canceled Saturday and Sunday. Fraport had set up some 1,000 camp beds at the airport over the weekend so passengers could spend the night and staff distributed snacks and drinks and employed clowns and entertainers to try and keep children occupied.
German railway operator Deutsche Bahn AG said the company's trains are running, though some have major delays due to the bad weather conditions and speed limits. A spokesman said trains are extremely crowded, and passengers can get a refund for their tickets if they decide not to travel.
Many travellers, unable to fly, have tried to continue their journeys by rail, and main routes between Hamburg and Munich, Berlin and the Ruhr area and between Cologne and Munich are particularly busy, the spokesman said.
In the Netherlands several hundred people spent the night at Amsterdam-Schiphol airport, where air traffic continued to be severely disrupted on Sunday.
In Belgium around 1,500 people were to spend a second night at Brussels airport, after up to 3,000 passengers slept there Saturday. Most of them were on 18 rerouted flights bound for Heathrow.
Sunday was Belgium's 18th day of snowfall since the start of November, beating the previous record was set in 1945.
London's Heathrow, the world's busiest international hub airport, was open Monday, but was operating a limited schedule as airlines struggled to move aircraft and crew back to their normal positions, airport operator BAA Airports Ltd. said. The airport was at a standstill for much of the weekend as it struggled to clear the snow and ice. Thousands of flights were canceled and passengers were left huddled under blankets in the terminals.
However, British Airways PLC (BAY.LN), which canceled hundreds of flights over the weekend, said only one of Heathrow's two runways was operational as BAA continued to clear large amounts of snow and ice.
"Based on current icy conditions and forecast of further bad weather, we expect this process to take some time. The airport is therefore likely to be operating at significantly reduced capacity for several days," BA said.
The airline said it planned to operate as many long-haul flights as possible, but there will be some cancellations. It operated a small number of short-haul flights Monday morning, but canceled the remainder after midday.
"Customers who are travelling from Heathrow, whose travel is not essential ,are encouraged to cancel their flight, in return for a full refund, or to consider changing their flight to another date over the next 12 months," BA said.
All airlines were advising passengers to check their flight was still scheduled before setting off for the airport.
The disruption was hitting the workings of government. A meeting between the U.K. government and banks to discuss bonuses and lending, scheduled for Monday afternoon, has been postponed because Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is having trouble flying back to London from New York due to bad weather, a government spokesman said.
Rail services and the road network was also suffering severe disruption. The U.K.'s Met Office had severe weather warnings in place over much of the country for either more snow or icy roads.
Eurostar, which operates passenger trains between London and European cities including Paris and Brussels through the Channel Tunnel, said it was suffering delays and speed restrictions and it has a number of trains and crew out of position. It said it will operate a contingency timetable with some cancellations for a number of days and it isn't selling any more tickets for trains up to Christmas.
In the Netherlands, Amsterdam's Schiphol airport was fully operational Monday, after canceling about 100 flights on Saturday and about 70 on Sunday due to the harsh weather conditions. However, a spokesperson said some flights were still likely to be canceled due to continuing problems in other countries, while the weather conditions in Amsterdam were causing delays to other flights.
Air France-KLM said it only expected a "limited" number of cancellations on European flights leaving Schiphol, while almost all long-haul flights will take off.
During the weekend, up to 1,000 passengers got stranded at Schiphol. Passengers who couldn't get a hotel from their airline were given camp beds by Schiphol, but the airport said only "dozens" had been used.
In northern France, about 15,000 households were without power, with some disruption to road and rail transport.
In northern Italy the situation was improving after two days of chaos on the roads and in the airports in Tuscany.
Source: Wall Street Journal, the Business Times and BDP International
