Heathrow cuts 130 more flights as London snow continues
By Rhys Jones
of Reuters
Hundreds of passengers slept in London's Heathrow airport after hundreds of flights were scrapped after a snowstorm.
LONDON — London's Heathrow airport canceled 10 percent of its flights Monday, a day after it cut its capacity by a fifth, and said services could face further delays with more snowfall expected.
Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, said it had cut around 130 flights — most of them operated by IAG'S British Airways — from its schedule Monday to allow more space between aircraft because of low visibility.
More than 400 flights were canceled Friday and 111 more Saturday, forcing hundreds of passengers to spend the night in Heathrow's terminals.
"Many airports have plenty of spare runway capacity so aircraft can be spaced out more during low visibility without causing delays and cancellations. Because Heathrow operates at almost full capacity, there is simply no room to reschedule the delayed flights," a Heathrow spokesman said.
The airport scrapped some 250 flights Sunday and said the decision had helped it operate smoothly.
Further light snowfalls are forecast through Monday and Tuesday, said the Met Office, a national weather service.
Ferrovial's Heathrow has spent $57 million on upgrading its winter weather equipment since 2010 — a year it faced heavy criticism after shutting down when snow hit just before Christmas. It now has 130 snow-clearing vehicles.
London's second airport, Gatwick, said it was operating normally Monday morning but that delays and some flight cancellations were likely because of adverse weather across Europe.
Smaller Stansted airport said it was open and operational but it expected to see some Ryanair flights canceled during the day.
East Midlands Airport, in central England, said its single runway would remain closed until later Monday, while City Airport — close to London's financial district — reopened its one runway after closing it earlier in the morning.
On Saturday, Paris airport operator ADP said airlines scrapped 40 percent of flights in and out of the two main airports on the outskirts of Paris, Charles de Gaulle and Orly, primarily reducing short-haul services.
Services by Air France-KLM, Ireland's Aer Lingus and Germany's Lufthansa have also been affected.
France's SNCF railway company announced delays of up to 40 minutes on many lines as drivers were ordered to reduce speed as a safety measure.
Local media said some 25,000 homes lost power supply in southwestern France.
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