Thousands of stranded travellers faced a nervy battle to get home for Christmas as snow and ice caused fresh chaos at European airports and paralysed roads and railways across the frozen continent yesterday.
International hubs London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Brussels struggled to clear a backlog of passengers stranded over the weekend as holidaymakers tried to reach their destinations in time for December 25.
Some travellers who had been sleeping on airport floors since Friday faced further frustration, with aircraft stuck in the wrong places, throwing flight schedules into disarray.
Frankfurt airport even resorted to sending in the clowns to ease the frustration, while another accepted the problems could run on for days.
London Heathrow, the world’s busiest international passenger airport, warned travellers to anticipate delays and cancellations “potentially beyond Christmas Day” as it fought to sort out its schedule.
It cut flights down to a third until 0600 GMT tomorrow in a bid to get diverted jets and crew back to their normal positions.
Disappointment turned to anger for many weary travellers as money and patience wore thin. Heathrow’s Terminal 3 had been turned into a makeshift camp with exhausted passengers crashed out on temporary mattresses.
“I am ashamed to be British,” Marian Perkins, 65, who was hoping to fly to Australia to see her new grandson for the first time, said.
“It’s disgusting. We are here in the cold with the same clothes since Friday, because we don’t carry winter clothes when we go to Australia,” she said.
American musician Giovanni Bet, 22, was trying to get back to Chicago after a tour.
“We were here last night. It was like a shanty camp with people sleeping on the floor,” he said.
British airport operator BAA was forced to defend its handling of the crisis, with CEO Colin Matthews saying Heathrow had to bring in earthmoving equipment and 50 trucks to remove the snow. “I cannot remember in my lifetime any episode of cold and snow remotely like today,” he said.
Night-flight restrictions were lifted until Christmas Eve and special repatriation flights were being arranged.
Temperatures reached a record low in Northern Ireland, hitting minus 17.6 ºC.
Britain’s National Grid forecast a record demand for gas yesterday, while the Automobile Association breakdown service forecast the day would “break all records” for emergency call-outs.
Eurostar, which operates high-speed passenger trains linking London with Paris and Brussels, cancelled some services due to the snow and operated speed restrictions on trains that did run, nearly doubling some journey times.