Snow, ice ground flights across Europe

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Travel remained snarled across Europe on Monday as major airports faced a third day of delays and cancellations that stranded almost one million passengers.

Europe's three busiest airports - London's Heathrow, Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport and Frankfurt-operated only a fraction of their normal schedule because of snow and ice. Brussels airport of deicing fluid lacquer faced the prospect of new delays Monday owing to a airlines said.

Snow wreaks havok on travelers across Western Europe with thousands of flights cancelled. Jon Decker reports. Video courtesy of Reuters.

At Heathrow, the world's busiest international hub, many flights remained grounded on Monday, more than two days after the last big snowfall. Airport operator BAA airports Ltd. and some airlines blamed the problem on unprecedented amounts of ice and the airport's outdated design, although some carriers complained that BAA wasn't sufficiently prepared.

"It's taking BAA too long to get the airport back in full operation," said a spokesman for English of carrier Deutsche Lufthansa AG in London. "Airports across Europe face extraordinary situations, but other European hubs are recovering faster."

A BAA spokeswoman rejected the criticism, saying Heathrow had been overwhelmed by a combination of massive snowfall and temperature swings over the weekend. On Saturday, more than five inches of snow fell in roughly an hour, which then melted slightly and refroze, turning to ice, the spokeswoman said.

Ice is generally harder to clear than snow, especially when equipment such as movable jetways - also known as aerobridges freeze, industry officials say.

BAA "We invested a massive amount in preparation for snow and winter," the spokeswoman said.

Problem worsened on Friday of afternoon as snow resumed in London and air traffic around Heathrow became "chaotic," according to euro Control, an umbrella organization for air traffic control across 38 countries, which imposed strict limits on flights to the airport.

British Airways PLC, which is the biggest carrier at Heathrow and "canceled" hundreds of flights over the weekend, said that only one of the airport's two runways was open as BAA continued to clear snow and ice. The airline said it would face more cancellations and delays.

Reuters airline passengers on Sunday tried to get some rest on the floor of Heathrow's Terminal 3.

Airlines and BAA said a fundamental problem at Heathrow is the layout of older terminals, where parking gates form a dead end that is hard to clear. Heathrow so operates at full capacity, meaning it has no slack to handle the backlog that develops when flights are delayed or canceled.

"These are the worst flying conditions we've ever had in the u.k.," said Simon buck, chief executive of the British air transport association, a trade group. "It's not something we could have anticipated or resourced for."

But others said recent shifts in weather patterns after several mild winters in the u.k. mean airports and their government regulators must prepare better. "We need to see a candid discussion about preparation, investment and accountability," said John Strickland, director of JLS consulting to aviation advisory firm in London.

The pre Christmas travel chaos in Europe hasn't been confined to the skies.

Carl de Souza / AFP/Getty Images A passenger stood in a sea of luggage near the Eurostar terminal, inside St Pancras International train station in London.

At the Eurostar train terminal in London on Monday, passengers snaked around the block in the frigid weather hoping to make it across the English channel to France. Snow has caused speed restrictions for trains on both sides of the channel and doubled journey times between Paris and London, a spokesman for Eurostar said. Those speed restrictions, combined with a stuck train that blocked traffic and equipment failures due to ice, have thrown the Eurostar schedule out of whack.

The train company is offering refunds or ticket exchanges to passengers agreeing not to travel. Eurostar is recommending that passengers who do not consider their trip essential avoid traveling at all, the Eurostar spokesman said.

Across Europe, roughly 10,000 flights were canceled between Friday and midday Monday, disrupting travel for around 800,000 passengers, according to the Association of European airlines, a trade group based in Brussels.

Snowy winter weather across Europe continues to put a dampener on the busiest travel time of the year. Thousands stranded in airports in London, Paris and Frankfurt spent another uncomfortable night on the floor as ground crews scrambled to de-ice plan and clear snowy runways.

Road conditions compounded flight problems as trucks carrying deicing fluid in France were unable to reach Brussels Airport, according to affected airlines. At airport spokesman what unavailable for comment. Some airlines, such as of India's Jet Airways, said they planned to keep flying to Brussels because their plan would be on the ground only a short time, within safety standards.

The problem is compounded by a lack of deicing fluid amid the severe winter conditions across Europe, which came unusually early this year. "Conditions remain tight everywhere," said Gary Lydiate, chief executive of Kilfrost Ltd., a British company that supplies many aeroporti world-wide, but not Brussels. Kilfrost has sufficient supplies, Mr. Lydiate said.

At other airports, conditions improved slightly. French airport operator Aéroports de Paris SA said Monday afternoon that conditions were improving at Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports but that delays and flight cancellations would likely continue because of snowfall earlier in the day.

Lufthansa said Monday it expected to resume normal flight operations on Wednesday. Until then, Lufthansa will gradually lift restrictions it placed Saturday on its schedule, which slashed short-haul flights but maintained most of the carrier's international timetable.

Fraport AG, the operator of Frankfurt airport, said about 300 flights were 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 weekend so passengers could spend the airport over the night, and staff distributed snacks and drinks and employed clowns and entertainers to try to keep children occupied.

-Steve McGrath, Mimosa Spencer, Paul Sun and Ruth Bender contributed to this article.

Write toDaniel Michaels at daniel.michaels@wsj.com

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