Frankfurt Airport Shut by Snow as Blizzard Idles Eurostar Trains
Baku, March 12 (AZERTAC). Frankfurt airport closed to traffic following heavy overnight snowfalls and Eurostar Group Ltd. suspended Channel Tunnel train services as blizzards disrupted air, rail and road travel across swathes of northern Europe.
About 300 flights to and from Europe’s third-busiest airport were cancelled this morning before owner Fraport AG chose to stop operations. Expresses through the Channel Tunnel were halted because of “severe weather conditions in northern France,” according to the U.K.’s National Rail, and Eurostar advised passenger to restrict travel to essential journeys. French authorities preemptively grounded one-quarter of flights at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport, the second-busiest in the region, and local trains were also hit, with SNCF asking people to avoid travel to Paris. Rail services were delayed to London’s Gatwick airport, close to which dozens of motorists slept in their cars after as much as six inches of snow fell.
“A high-pressure area north of Britain is pulling in the cold from Russia and that’s colliding with a large area of low pressure over northern France,” said Helen Chivers, a forecaster at the U.K. Met Office. “Where the two meet you’re getting a lot of snow because the air coming from the north is so cold.”
While Frankfurt’s runways were being continuously cleared, the snow didn’t allow for safe operations, Fraport spokesman Matthias Nossek said. Services were halted before noon and should resume at about 1:30 p.m., assuming conditions improve.
Hundreds of people were stuck at St Pancras station, Eurostar’s London terminus, with many abandoning their trips. Company spokeswoman Catherine Bayles said it’s not clear when services linking London with Paris and Brussels will resume, with the line closed on the French side of the tunnel.
Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA), Europe’s second-biggest carrier, had scrapped 340 flights as of 12:45 p.m. local time, mostly from Dusseldorf and Frankfurt. Air France-KLM Group (AF), the No. 1, said on its website that that 35 percent of short- and medium-haul operations would be cancelled at Charles de Gaulle. At least a fifth of flights were also scrapped at Paris’s Orly airport.
About 600 vehicles were stuck overnight on the A16 in the Nord Pas-de-Calais region north of Paris, with 100 still at a standstill today, Agence France-Presse said, while 70,000 homes in northwest France also lost power as a result of the snowfall.
Meteo France, the country’s weather service, placed 29 districts in the north on “orange” alert before moving two of them -- La Manche and Calvados -- to “red” status, forecasting average falls of between 5 and 15 centimeters (2 to 6 inches). In Normandy, wind-blown drifts reached a depth of 1.5 meters.
The high winds that brought the snow also caused moderate to severe delays at London Heathrow, Europe’s top hub, according to Eurocontrol, which manages air traffic across the region.
Operations at London City, close to the U.K. capital’s financial district, were slowed by the wind and also affected by de-icing work, though Stansted to the north, the biggest base for Ryanair Holdings Plc (RYA), said its runway was clear.
Disruptions in the U.K. included short-notice cancellations because of train stock displacement on the Gatwick Express that connects London Victoria with the airport, National Rail said.
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