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A passenger looks at the snow-covered tarmac of Zaventem international airport near Brussels December 20, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Francois Lenoir (BELGIUM - Tags: TRANSPORT ENVIRONMENT)By Michael RoddyLONDON | Wed Dec 22, 2010 6:45am EST
LONDON (Reuters) - Fresh snow forecasts threatened to prolong chaos caused by a cold snap that could also dent German growth as airline and international train services limped back towards normal in parts of Europe on Wednesday.
Disruptions to flights and high-speed train travel in continental Europe and Britain, have created travel chaos for tens of thousands of travellers in the busy Christmas period following heavy weekend snowfalls.
Cold weather is likely to dent fourth quarter growth in Germany, Europe's biggest economy, Volker Treier, chief economist at Germany's DIHK chamber of industry and commerce, told Reuters.
"A lot of construction projects have been stopped and a lot of business trips cancelled," he said. "Freight transport has also had weather problems. The bottom line is the harsh weather will cost about a half a point of growth this quarter."
German railways put on more trains to help stranded air travellers reach their destinations but in France the national aviation authority asked airlines to reduce services as a precaution after more snow was forecast.
In Britain, the bad weather has caused severe delays to rail services across northern and central districts and forecasters said more heavy snow was on the way.
Travel havoc has triggered calls for legislation to force airports to deal more effectively with bad weather.
European Union transport chief Siim Kallas said he was considering forcing airports to provide a minimum level of infrastructure support during severe weather.
London's Heathrow, the world's busiest international airport, and Frankfurt Airport, the biggest on the continent, said on their websites that operations were returning to normal after severe disruptions.
Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, chief executive of Lufthansa's (LHAG.DE) BMI airline, accused Spanish-owned BAA (FER.MC) of being unprepared for the heavy snow at Heathrow.
"What is really incredible is that 10 cm (4 ins) of snow closed the airport down for two days and then it operated at one-third capacity," he told the Times newspaper. "BAA was not prepared. It did not have enough de-icing fluid."
"UNPRECEDENTED WEATHER"
A spokesman for BAA denied there had been a de-icer issue at Heathrow and said lessons would be learnt.
"This was unprecedented weather which closed most of northern Europe's airports," he said.
Heathrow was scheduled to operate 70 percent of a normal day's service, about 800 flights, but it was still advising passengers not to come to Heathrow unless they had confirmed flights, the spokesman said.
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