More flights will be cancelled, trains will run late and roads will be blocked by snow across Europe in coming days as a cold snap is forecast to worsen, bringing even more heavy snowfall after several days of travel disruption.
Authorities in the Netherlands told people to plan to stay at home if at all possible today, with a fresh blizzard expected to arrive overnight.
French Transportation Minister Philippe Tabarot said yesterday that airlines had already been ordered to cancel at least 40 per cent of flights at Paris’ main Charles de Gaulle airport the following morning, and a quarter of flights at smaller Orly.
Public transportation in the Paris region will probably also be disrupted by the snow, he added.
As snowfalls are expected again, Dutch airline KLM said it had protectively cancelled 600 flights today to avoid last-minute cancellations that could leave travellers stranded at Schiphol airport, one of Europe’s main hubs.
KLM had already cancelled 400 flights at Schiphol yesterday and told travellers whose flights had been called off to stay away from the airport to prevent overcrowding.
“We haven’t experienced such extreme weather conditions in years,” spokesperson Anoesjka Aspeslagh said.
Stranded at Schiphol, Simiao Sun said she feared she would spend her 40th birthday in transit. She had been told she would have to wait three days for a rescheduled flight to Britain where she lives.
“My child would miss school and we would both miss work, so I’m queuing here...hoping to get a slightly earlier flight.”
KLM said it was offering alternative flights where possible and doing everything to help travellers, but was “overwhelmed with inquiries”.
On top of that, all domestic rail services in the Netherlands were suspended early yesterday after an IT outage hit the rail network.
Roads in France were gradually clearing yesterday after snow caused severe accidents all over the country, killing at least five people, according to BFMTV news station.
Traffic in the Paris area hit a record 1,000 kilometres of jams on Monday evening.
In Germany, temperatures fell well below minus 10 degrees Celsius in the south and east early yesterday. Much of the country was covered in snow.
In Britain, the Meteorological Office said winter weather hazards could continue throughout the week for most of the country.
Temperatures overnight had fallen as low as -12.5C in Marham, Norfolk, in eastern England, marking the coldest night of the winter so far.
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