Latest snow update for Europe

Transport 06/02/2012

Heathrow airport cancelled half of its 1300 scheduled flights, as 2012 sees the heaviest snowfall in Europe for decades. Officials from the London airport claim the decision was made in advance in order to enable people to re-book and for passengers to receive better quality information about the status of their flights.

This reduction in the number of flights is the outcome of supposedly improved flight information, after Heathrow came under serious criticism following severe weather and countless flight cancellations in December 2010.

Other airports in the UK, such as Stansted, Birmingham, Luton and Manchester warn of disruptions and suspended some operations on Saturday night. According to current reports, Gatwick is not experiencing any major delays, although it has been forced to cancel 9 flights.

On a wider scale, temperatures in some countries across central and Eastern Europe have plummeted to below -35°c. Over 300 people have died due to the severe weather conditions and in the Ukraine, over 1500 individuals have been hospitalised. The intense cold snap has even spread to Italy and France, with Rome experiencing rare snowfall and the canals of Venice have allegedly begun to freeze over. Officials in Paris are trying to crowd as many homeless people as possible into shelters, as temperatures drop dramatically. Other countries that have been seriously affected include Poland, Serbia, Romania and Belarus.

The UK Met Office has issued a severe weather warning and roads across the United Kingdom are hazardous.

Regarding flights and subsequent cancellations, airline policies can vary. Some may offer a possible change of itinerary and passengers are therefore able to move their flights up to 7 days after the original date. Other options include being able to change the ticket completely (with or without penalties) and refunds, which are only applicable where flights are affected by days rather than hours. The best advice would be to call ahead or check online, before you travel to the airport to check the status of your flight; if the roads are icy, then it is more than likely that the runways will be too. If you are already at the airport, there may be a possibility of re-booking if you call the reservations department immediately.

Contact your airline for flight information.