Freezing rain shuts Moscow's airport and cuts power

Freezing rain has badly disrupted air traffic at Moscow's airports and left more than 400,000 people in and around Russia's capital without electricity.

Rain that immediately turned into ice on the ground caused power failures, shutting Domodedovo airport for hours and stranding thousands of people. The power was later restored.

Dozens of flights to and from other Moscow airports were cancelled.

Bad weather also turned many streets in the city into ice rinks.

Domodedovo airport remained shut for more than 10 hours on Sunday, after the power supply was cut off, officials said.

The outage was caused by tree branches touching power lines loaded down with ice.

The power was only restored late in the evening.

More than 60 flights were also cancelled at other Moscow airports because of bad weather.

In the city itself, freezing rain damaged power supplies to trams and trolley buses and caused huge traffic jams.

Health officials urged residents not to risk walking on the icy streets and stay indoors.

At an emergency meeting, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered ministers to rectify the situation as soon as possible.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12081651

Air Canada resumes full schedule to snowy U.K.

An Air Canada spokesperson said the airline has resumed its full array of flights to London's Heathrow airport Tuesday evening.

This will mean a return to the regular schedule of nine flights going to London and nine returning to Canada on Wednesday, Peter Fitzpatrick told CTV News.

"We think it's good news, but at the same time, there's quite a backlog of passengers," he said. "We're not sure how long it's going to take to move all the people affected by cancelled flights, but it may well take a week or more."

It's difficult to put a number on how many people are affected, he said. Only about one-third of Air Canada's scheduled flights to Heathrow have been able to occur since the airport received about 13 centimetres of snow Saturday.

Holiday-season flights are almost always heavily booked, "but this is certainly going to alleviate the pressure," Fitzpatrick said.

Some British Airways flights also began to get back on track Tuesday, but the company warned it could take until Thursday for planes to begin taking off regularly.

In the meantime, U.K.-bound passengers at Pearson International Airport can only grit their teeth and wait.

Dennis Leslie is one of those feeling the frustration. The father of three from Brandon, Man., is spending his fourth day waiting for a flight to London to join his wife and children.

"You can put your name down on standby but, it's already overbooked," he said Tuesday.

"Every time you don't get your name called, you've got to go stand back in line. You get your name put to the bottom of their priority list, so then you wait again. They only take 10 people … flight get cancelled, back in line, put your name on a list."

Sarah Newberry said she was supposed to be on priority standby "because I'm running out of my medication, and there's no communication between staff, and I'm left again."

One woman said she knows she won't return to Britain in time for Christmas, with her flight booked for Dec. 29.

Another British citizen said if he could just get home for Christmas, all the hassles would be worthwhile.

One flight departed Pearson on Tuesday for Heathrow at 8:30 a.m.

Flights taking off from Pearson Tuesday night:

* AC848
* AC856
* AC868

People should check their flight's status before heading to the airport, Fitzpatrick said. Stranded passengers should either rebook online or through a call centre, but there are long delays through the call centre, he said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron had offered the services of the army to get Heathrow fully operational as soon as possible, but the airport declined.

For much of Tuesday, only one runway was available, with more than half of Heathrow's flights being cancelled. But a second runway has since re-opened. Nine flights are set to land in Canada from Heathrow Wednesday morning.

Europe's top transport official has threatened tougher regulation for airports for not being able to handle the winter weather.

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http://swo.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20101221/pearson-air-travel-britain-delays-101221/20101221/?hub=SWOHome

Snow Extends U.K., European Air Travel Delays as Holiday Nears

Air-travel disruptions threatened to ripple across Europe for another day as heavy snow forced London’s Gatwick airport to stop outbound flights early today.

The halt to departures will be in effect until 6 a.m. U.K. time, according to the airport’s website. Paris’s Roissy-Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports were set to begin the day with at least 28 canceled flights before 7 a.m., data tracker FlightStats.com said.

Snow snarled train services as well as airlines for a fourth day as travelers tried to get home for the Christmas and New Year holidays. The two Paris airports stayed open late yesterday to clear a backlog of flights delayed by the snow, and operating hours were extended for four days at London’s Heathrow airport.

“It is necessary to allow as many airplanes as possible to fly as long as weather conditions remain favorable,” French Transport Minister Thierry Mariani said in an e-mailed statement.

Airlines and rail operators urged travelers to stay home if possible, and U.S. carriers waived fees as more snow was forecast for England, France and Germany. Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed yesterday from London, Paris, Frankfurt and Geneva.

Dublin’s airport restarted flights at 11:30 p.m. after suspending services earlier last night while crews cleared the runway of snow and ice, according to a website statement.

Heathrow, Paris Airports

BAA Airports Ltd., the U.K. airport operator owned by Ferrovial SA, asked passengers yesterday not to travel to Heathrow’s Terminal 1 and 3 to avoid overcrowding. Aeroports de Paris, which runs the two Paris airports, said the average flight delay at Charles de Gaulle was two to three hours.

“It would be silly of me to say at this stage that things are going to be tip top,” Gatwick airport spokesman Andrew McCallum said in a telephone interview yesterday, with more snow forecast overnight.

Eurostar Group Ltd., which links London to Paris and Brussels by train, asked passengers not already at stations not to come and urged all clients to cancel non-essential travel. The service isn’t accepting new bookings through Dec. 24, a spokesman said.

Most other trains throughout France were running more slowly than normal, though 90 percent were arriving less than 1 hour late, according to train operator SNCF.

Change Fees

U.S. carriers such as United Continental Holdings Inc. and AMR Corp.’s American Airlines waived ticket-change fees for passengers traveling to or from parts of Europe.

“Delays and flight cancelations could occur through the entire pre-Christmas period” at Berlin’s airports, Flughafen Berlin-Schönefeld GmbH said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG said it expects the number of flights within Germany and Europe to gradually increase and return to normal by tomorrow as the weather situation is set to improve, according to Frankfurt-based spokeswoman Bettina Rittberger.

“We’re confident we can sustain pretty smooth operations by Wednesday,” Rittberger said by phone.

Snow and freezing fog have hindered air travel across Europe since last week with up to 20 centimeters (8 inches) of snow falling in parts of the U.K. yesterday. Airlines including Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Qantas Airways Ltd. and Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. have been forced to cancel flights, leaving thousands of travelers stranded.

Cathay Pacific Airways canceled 14 flights to or from London since Dec. 18, affecting more than 4,500 passengers, according to the airline’s website. The company said yesterday it was “extremely unlikely” that it would be able to add any extra flights to London within the next 48 hours.

Qantas Airways has 3,000 passengers affected by the shutdown, after it canceled flights from London and turned back other flights headed to the U.K., Simon Rushton, a spokesman for the Sydney-based carrier, said yesterday.

Deutsche Bahn AG spokeswoman Kathrin Fellenberg said the winter weather continued to disrupt Germany’s national railroad network causing numerous train delays and cancellations.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-20/europe-s-cold-blast-disrupts-travel-for-third-day-as-more-snow-is-forecast.html