Even as air traffic at London’s Heathrow International Airport crawled back to near normal on Thursday, hotels near the airport are cashing in on delays and cancellations caused by freezing weather, charging up to 300 per cent more for rooms at the moment than prices for January 2011.
According to online booking site Hotels.com, there has also been a 95 per cent increase in searches for hotels near London Heathrow (LHR) between last Saturday’s snowfall and yesterday, compared to the same period last year.
Air traffic to and from London Heathrow, the world’s busiest airport, came to a grinding halt earlier this week with bad weather forcing massive disruptions across Europe. But just in time for Christmas, the snow seems to be clearing out, with approximately 900 flights operated at Heathrow on Wednesday.
All departures to the UAE, including those of British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia that were cancelled on Wednesday have resumed. A total of 19 flights departing from LHR to Dubai and 13 from LHR to Abu Dhabi, are scheduled to be on time today.
However nine of the 20 flights departing from Dubai to LHR remain cancelled. They include two each of British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia and one each of Virgin Atlantic, Singapore Airlines and BMI that were scheduled to depart at 10am. All 13 departures from Abu Dhabi are on schedule so far.
A report in The Independent says British Airways had decided to cancel 150 flights on the basis of what it says turned out to be misleading guidance from the airport operator about when the second runway would reopen.
According to it, almost a third of the 1,300 flights that pass through Heathrow on an average day were cancelled on Wednesday with other airports taking up the additional burden - London Gatwick operating at 115 per cent capacity and taking on 70 extra flights.
British Airways alone had cancelled 2,000 flights and diverted 40 fully-laden planes over the past six days costing the airline up to £40m in lost profits it added.
Meanwhile Heathrow Airport officials were hopeful yesterday of restoring all the cancelled services. A message on its website says, “Heathrow is open and most flights will operate today.”
Efforts are on to clear the airport of stranded passengers. Airport officials are advising passengers to check the status of their flight with the airlines before heading to the airport. “We don’t have any information yet on what flights each of our 90 airlines will operate on Friday – but check your airline’s website,” said an update on its twitter feed.
Meanwhile, hotels near LHR continue cashing in on stranded passengers’ misery. Alison Couper from Hotels.com said: “Clearly, availability for rooms around Heathrow is at a premium as travellers find themselves stranded as a result of the severe weather conditions – and prices rise as demand outstrips supply. Room rates are definitely going up but some providers are charging far more than others.”
The website also noted that prices for hotel rooms near Gatwick airport were up to 74 per cent above prices for January 2011.
A large number of flights to and from Europe, particularly in the UK, have been affecetd by the ongoing snowfall and resulting adverse weather conditions.
Airports across Europe remain in chill, with forecast of fresh snow putting a spanner in restoration of services. On top of that, forecasts of fresh snow in parts of Europe threaten to prolong chaos caused by the cold snap.
In its latest advice to passengers, Emirates said “All of Emirates’ six gateway airports in the UK are open and both runways at London Heathrow are operational. The airline’s flights in and out of the UK, as well as our other European destinations, are operating as close to schedule as possible. Weather conditions remain unsettled and passengers are reminded that flights may still be affected.”
Meanwhile France has let the two main airports in Paris, Charles de Gaulle and Orly, to remain open around the clock in an effort to clear the backlog of delayed flights. According to reports quoting Air France CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, the financial impact of snowfall and other weather-related disturbances on Air France-KLM is estimated to be around 35 million euros (S$60.1 million) just this month alone.
Around 1,000 passengers woke up in the terminals at Heathrow, the world’s busiest international passenger airport, which has slimmed down its schedule in a bid to manage the situation.
Airlines were told what capacity was available and they themselves decided which flights to cut, with both long-haul and short-haul services scrapped.
“We’re running 70 per cent of our normal planned schedule, which accounts for around 900 flights, and we're comfortable that we'll be able to remove the rest of the snow from the airfield today,” a Heathrow spokeswoman told AFP.
“Both runways are open and operating,” she said, adding that a total of 30,000 tonnes of snow had been shifted from the apron.
Flights left Heathrow through the night, breaking the normal curfew, in a bid to beat the backlog.
The spokeswoman said the airport was "absolutely" aiming to get everyone away in time for Christmas.
Weather reports said snow could persist in northern Europe, which might hamper flight operations at airports that feed flights into key European hubs.
In France authorities allowed the two main airports in Paris, Charles de Gaulle and Orly, to remain open around the clock to clear the backlog of delayed flights.
But civil aviation authority DGAC warned that snow predicted to fall as early as Wednesday afternoon would disupt air traffic in Paris region airports.
Operations at Frankfurt airport, Germany's main hub, were improving though 70 early flights were cancelled.
"Operations are more normal at the moment, the runways are free of snow and ice," spokesman Wolfgang Schwalm told AFP as rain and temperatures above freezing gave airport managers a helping hand.
On Tuesday, more than 550 flights out of 1,300 had been cancelled, he said.
Some passengers were taken to local hotels and "more than 300 people spent the night on cots in the terminals" he added.
"If the weather holds up, we will get a lot of passengers to their destinations today, but it also depends on the weather at other European airports," Schwalm added.
The German flag carrier Lufthansa said it expected a "quasi-normal situation" for flights on Wednesday.
Flights got going again at Dublin Airport after the authorities cleared ice and more than 15 centimetres (six inches) of snow.
Unions representing ground staff for Portuguese carrier TAP announced they had called off a strike due Thursday to avoid aggravating the continent's Christmas travel crisis.
While rail services across Europe were also affected, the situation was improving on the Eurostar, which operates high-speed passenger trains linking London with Paris and Brussels.
Eurostar was planning to run a "near normal service" on Wednesday, with nine trains out of 52 cancelled, and were back to accepting passengers on the services they held tickets for.
Passengers at the London St Pancras terminal reported waits of under three hours - a vast improvement on the kilometre-long queues witnessed in recent days.
In Russia, eight people were killed when a bus smashed into an oncoming truck in the western Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk, news agencies reported.
Investigators said the accident may have been caused by a technical malfunction resulting from the cold weather, with temperatures dropping to minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit).
Southern Sweden was experiencing problems on its road network because of unusually heavy snow.
Heathrow getting back on track
London's Heathrow airport hoped to operate more than 90 per cent of flights on Thursday after days of delays and cancellations caused by ice and snow, but thousands of passengers still faced disappointment, reports AFP.
Some 200,000 passengers were expected to catch flights from the airport in the traditionally busy pre-Christmas period, a spokeswoman said.
But at least 120 flights were cancelled and authorities warned that the weather conditions of recent days had left many planes and crews out of position, so further delays were possible.
A Heathrow spokesman said: "We are extremely sorry for the disruption to people's journeys and we are working hard with airlines to return to a normal schedule."
British Airways, which is allowing anyone booked until December 31 to either rebook or receive a refund, said it hoped to operate all its Heathrow long-haul services today and the "vast majority" of short-haul flights.
Some terminals at Heathrow, one of the world's busiest airports, were turned into dormitories earlier this week as passengers unable to fly were forced to spend the night on luggage trays used as makeshift beds.
As conditions eased in southern England, Dublin airport had to shut until at least 1330 GMT after heavy snow covered the runway.
Scotland's main airport, Edinburgh, was open but reported delays and cancellations due to the weather.
Dublin airport shut by heavy snow
All flights at Dublin airport were suspended until at least 1330 GMT on Thursday after heavy snow rendered the runway unsafe, airport authorities said.
"Flight operations have been suspended at Dublin Airport following persistent heavy snowfalls for the past hour over the airfield resulting in severe contamination of the main runway," a statement said.
"Our snow and ice crews are working hard to clear snow from the airfield as quickly as possible."
The airport hopes to re-open this afternoon if the weather improves.
The closure in Dublin comes as airports in London were largely getting back on track after days of disruption caused by snow and ice.
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