12-25-2010 09:29 BJT Special Report:Merry Christmas |
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Extreme weather in Europe continues taking its toll on airports, and delaying people making their way home for the holidays. In France, aviation authorities canceled flights due to a shortage of de-icer.
In Belgium, heavy snow caused more pauses. Although London's Heathrow Airport has gradually returned to normal service, many passengers are already late for Christmas reunions.
The warmth and joy of Christmas has given way to flight delays and long cold nights at airports for many Europeans.
In Belgium, Brussels' airport was packed with worried and disappointed travellers trying to come to grips with spending Christmas away from home.
A stranded passenger said, "We go back like every year, and this was an important one for us to get back for family reasons."
The main airports in the French capital ran short of de-icing liquid. That grounded many planes even if the weather permitted a take-off.
The French Civil Aviation Authority asked airlines to cut flights out of Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport by half.
For stranded passengers, Christmas feels a little colder this year.
An Italian passenger said, "They cancelled the flights so we had to spend the night here. After we spent the whole night here, they cancelled the flight again."
A French passenger said, "Grandparents are waiting for us for Christmas, so we have to be optimistic. Or, we just could not stand it."
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| Extreme weather in Europe continues taking its toll on airports, and delaying people making their way home for the holidays. In France, aviation authorities canceled flights due to a shortage of de-icer. |
Although flights in the UK have gradually returned to normal, the fallout from earlier cancellations continues.
Heathrow Airport boss Colin Mathews renounced his annual bonus but the delay caused by the unpredicted snow has already brought enough trouble for passengers.
Another stranded passenger said, "Who would expect this amount of snow. It's just come down with such ferocity that I do not know how you can possibly keep up."
Heathrow said it was running almost 900 flights. That is 70 percent of a full service.
Elsewhere, Eurostar, which offers train services between England, France, and Belgium, said routes were operating a near-normal schedule.
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