Traffic picking up in Europe as weather clears up

Efforts on to clear huge backlog of stranded passengers

 Heathrow Airport, which managed to reopen its second runway on Tuesday, was again operating a reduced flight schedule as it brings aircraft and crews scattered around Europe back into position, but the outlook was improving.

“We’re operating 70 per cent of our schedule today (Wednesday) and we hope to build up to normal operations on Thursday,” a spokeswoman for BAA, the airport operator, said. “We’re working hard to get people back home for Christmas.”

Like other airports, Heathrow warned passengers not to come to the airport unless their airlines had confirmed their flights. Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport, which serves Paris, reported that traffic was picking up, but said disruptions continued.

Frankfurt Airport said it was operating subject to possible delays and cancellations from wintry weather and reduced visibility. Eurostar, the operator of the cross-Channel train service linking London with Paris and Brussels, said it was planning to operate “a near-normal service” on Wednesday but delays and longer journey times were likely.

Western European transportation has been in near chaos since Saturday, setting back holiday voyagers in the midst of the year’s busiest travel week.

Storm warning

The possibility of another round of bad weather threatened to complicate the authorities’ efforts to restore normal service.

Meteo-France, the French weather service, issued a winter storm advisory, saying a snowstorm would begin hitting northern France on Wednesday evening. Its British counterpart, the Met Office, warned of continuing icy conditions but said the risk of snowfall in the London area had diminished for the next few days.

On Tuesday, British Prime Minister David Cameron offered “military assistance” to BAA, which owns Heathrow, as it struggled to move stranded passengers. The spokeswoman said the offer had been declined.

Heathrow’s second runway had been closed since Saturday, when a storm left five inches of snow, quickly followed by plummeting temperatures. Still, the misery continued for many. Heathrow was wall-to-wall with camped-out passengers wondering when their flights would leave; other passengers were denied entry to the terminals and were sleeping in freezing tents outside Terminal One. BAA said on Wednesday it was working with the airlines to move the affected passengers into hotels. Cameron told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday that he was “frustrated on behalf of all those affected that it is taking so long for the situation to improve.”

Elsewhere in Britain, weather-related misery showed little letup on Tuesday, with widespread ice disrupting travel plans and pre-Christmas deliveries. One of London’s busiest train stations, Kings Cross, was closed much of the day after some overhead power cables suffered severe damage. Nearly 500 passengers from 10 trains had to be evacuated. Other lines were thwarted by new snowfall.