Aussies, Kiwis tell of Heathrow 'hell'

Europe reels from Christmas travel nightmare
LONDON — The world's busiest International Airport told infuriated passengers not to expect full service until Thursday, five days after a five-inch snowstorm turned hundreds of thousands of holiday plans into a nightmare of canceled flights and painful nights on terminal floors. Travelers' anger boiled over into politics as Britain's Prime Minister offered to put Troops on snow-clearing duty. Europe's top transport official threatened tougher Regulation of airports unable to cope wi...

Airline worker sentenced on coke smuggling
London's Southwark Crown Court Monday sentenced Mandeep Shahi, 27, of Mississauga for her role in importing at least 9 pounds of Cocaine when she traveled as an Air Canada employee from Toronto Pearson International Airport to Heathrow International Airport March 26, the Toronto Star reported. Shahi brought the Cocaine into England in her luggage and delivered the drugs to her co-conspirators in London Hotel Rooms, police said. Ghulem Malik, 53, Simon Howard-Harwood, 28, and Baljinder Nijjar, 2...

Europe weather ruins Christmas for airlines
Tue Dec 21, 2010 7:18am EST (Corrects figure in second paragraph to about 3,000 flights cancelled, not more than 22,000) By Rhys Jones and James Davey LONDON (Reuters) - Snow and freezing temperatures grounded flights across Northern Europe on Tuesday, while Retailers fretted they would struggle to make up sales lost due to Bad Weather with just four shopping days to Christmas. Eurocontrol, the umbrella group for air-traffic control across 38 countries, said more services would likely operate...

Thousands still stranded after snow
Stranded air travellers wait for flights at Heathrow. Thousands are still stuck across Britain after chaos caused by snow and ice. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA Heathrow Airport opened both runways tonight after five days of disruption, bringing some respite to frustrated travellers after another day of travel misery which left 130,000 airline passengers stranded while severe problems blighted the road and rail networks. David Cameron expressed frustration at the Heathrow chaos as it emerged tha...

German Airport Hires Clowns To Entertain Stranded Passengers...
(AFP) - With travelers stranded by hundreds of Flight Cancellations, Germany's busiest airport has hired clowns to help them and their Children pass the hours, a spokeswoman said Monday. "Four clowns are performing in the terminal halls," the spokeswoman for Frankfurt's International Airport said. "We came up with the idea for the kids, who are finding the delays particularly trying," she added. The clowns, dressed in brightly colored costumes and some parading on stilts, started working at the ...

German Airports Hire Clowns to Entertain
(AFP) - With travelers stranded by hundreds of Flight Cancellations, Germany's busiest airport has hired clowns to help them and their Children pass the hours, a spokeswoman said Monday. "Four clowns are performing in the terminal halls," the spokeswoman for Frankfurt's International Airport said. "We came up with the idea for the kids, who are finding the delays particularly trying," she added. The clowns, dressed in brightly colored costumes and some parading on stilts, started working at the ...

Winter Freeze Continues Across Europe
(NewsCore) - Thousands of travelers were forced to sleep in airports and queue at train stations across Europe as fresh snowfalls paralyzed transport networks days before Christmas. Heathrow Airport in London, Europe's busiest airport, was operating only a third of its normal schedule Tuesday, and Frankfurt airport halted all flights. More than 1,000 travelers spent the night at Frankfurt airport on Monday, with people sleeping on camp beds, AFP reported. Meanwhile, French authorities allowed Pa...

Heavy snow, cold disrupt travel across north Europe
BERLIN/London (Reuters) – Snow and freezing temperatures grounded flights and disrupted road and rail links across Northern Europe on Monday, stranding travelers and closing schools. Only one of two runways at London Heathrow, the world's busiest International Airport, was operating after a weekend snowstorm, forcing thousands to camp out in terminals. More than 1,000 flights at German airports in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin were canceled, disrupting business and Christmas holiday p...

Europe's weather woes strand thousands of Canadians
Severe winter weather in Europe is continuing to affect thousands of Canadian air travellers hoping to make it home for the holidays, with Air Canada forced to cut two-thirds of its flights through London Heathrow Airport Monday while other Airlines experience delays or cancellations on the mainland. Snow and freezing fog have disrupted Air Travel across Europe for the past three days with as much as 20 centimeters of snow falling in parts of the U.K. Airlines including Air Canada, Cathay Pacifi...

Wintry Weather Causes Holiday Travel Havoc in Europe
Monday, December 20, 2010 Passengers, delayed by Bad Weather, wait in Terminal 3 at Heathrow Airport west of London on Sunday, Dec. 19, 2010. (AP Photo/Akira Suemori) London (AP) - Snow and freezing temperatures continued to cause holiday Travel Chaos for road, rail and air passengers in Britain and much of Europe Monday, raising fears that many will not get home in time for Christmas. Airlines said that Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, was the worst hit by the poor weather -- with only a ...

Weather continues to disrupt U.K. airports
Thousands of passengers have been stranded at Heathrow, the world’s busiest International Airport, for days as flights have been delayed and cancelled....

Europe weather ruins Christmas for airlines
By Rhys Jones and James Davey LONDON | Tue Dec 21, 2010 8:11am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Snow and freezing temperatures grounded flights across Northern Europe on Tuesday, while Retailers fretted they would struggle to make up sales lost due to Bad Weather with just four shopping days to Christmas. Eurocontrol, the umbrella group for air-traffic control across 38 countries, said more services would likely operate on Tuesday after about 3,000 flights across Europe were canceled on Monday. But can...

BRITAIN CRAWLS TO A HALT...
National embarrassment deepened to abject humiliation last night as more than half a million Christmas travellers remained stranded in the UK. Major arterial roads and the Channel Rail Link ground to a standstill, unable to cope with drifting snow, Black Ice and "Refugees" from Heathrow. Temperatures were expected to drop to -13C last night and snow is expected across much of the country again today, particularly in southern England, Wales, the Midlands and Scotland. There is little prospect of ...

Another Reason To Hate Airport Malls
by Patrick Appel Clive Irving calls Heathrow, which has experienced massive travel delays due to Bad Weather, "the perfect choke point to cripple the world’s Air Traffic." He gives some background on how the airport became "a shopper’s honey trap." And explains how "management of British airports was privatized and turned over to a company called the British Airports Authority." Irving blames Ferrovial, the owner of British Airports Aut...

Snow Joke: The High Cost of Europe's Big Freeze
Forget dreams of a White Christmas. On Tuesday, millions of stranded travelers in Europe faced another day of being trapped in a Noël nightmare, as severe weather continued to disrupt air, rail, and road transportation — and threatened to do so through the holiday weekend. The chaos first broke out late last week, when heavy Snowfall brought movement in many European cities to a crawl. By Dec. 21, the Continent was still in slow mode, as early morning flurries forced Frankfurt's air...

Misery at Heathrow...
The travel misery for tens of thousands of holidaymakers stranded at Heathrow continued today as the airport struggled, while nearby Gatwick enjoyed a better-than-normal service. The smaller London airport was running at 115 per cent capacity, with 696 flights due to arrive and depart throughout the day. There have been 38 cancellations but the airport has also put on an extra 70 flights to deal with the backlog - compared to Heathrow which has been forced to cancel two-thirds of its schedule fo...

weather chaos could lead to more regulation
BRUSSELS - Europe's top transportation official says the failure to keep flights operating in cold and snowy conditions is unacceptable and could lead to tighter Regulation by the EU. Transportation Commissioner Siim Kallas says new airport regulations due to be published before the summer could include new requirements on "minimal services" airports will have to be able to provide during severe weather. Paisley Dodds and Raphael G. Satter in London, Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels and Ge...

Weather chaos continues to hit U.K. airports
LONDON - Snow and freezing temperatures continued to ground flights to and from Britain on Tuesday, with travellers hoping to get away for Christmas likely to suffer delays and cancellations for several more days. British Airways said it expected to make a “significant number of cancellations””to its shorthaul services from London’s Heathrow Airport, which will again operate with just one of its two runways on Tuesday. “Severe weather continues to cause signif...

Snow and ice expected in the UK until Boxing Day
Forecasters say freezing weather conditions are likely to remain until after Christmas, as a passenger tells Channel 4 News there is 'solidarity' in the airport queues. Heathrow has asked passengers not to travel to the airport unless their airline has confirmed they will be able to fly, as it was still operating a reduced schedule. Thousands of people were stranded at the airport yesterday, and BAA said it was unable to accept any more people at the "extremely congested" Terminals 1 and 3. The...

UK snow disruption - live updates
Britain is not new to cold winters. In 1995 Humberside dropped to -21C, As a child 40 years ago, the snow was 2 feet deep everywhere. Fuel froze in the trains in Inverness when it dipped to -34 C.Why are we so surprised when airports close and roads are impassable. It will probably happen next year too. Would heated runways work, but then everyone still has to get to the airport on the snow covered roads. We heat football pictches but still cancel matches. Anyone booking a flight or organizing ...

Metro Detroit in for an inch of snow
The National Weather Service says to expect about an inch of snow in some parts of metro Detroit today. A storm headed toward Michigan on Friday is expected to mostly miss metro Detroit. In Europe, snowstorms during the last three days have had a ripple effect on air traffic across the world, with a barely functioning London Heathrow Airport at the Epicenter. Delta's Flight 5 from London to Detroit today was called off after several days of cancellatio...

'Mini ice age coming'...
Well, folks, it's tea-time on Sunday and for anyone involved in keeping people moving it has been a hell of a weekend. Thousands have had their journeys wrecked, tens of thousands have been delayed getting away for Christmas; and for those Londoners who feel aggrieved by the performance of any part of our transport services, I can only say that we are doing our level best. Almost the entire Tube system was running on Sunday and we would have done even better if it had not been for a Suicide on ...

Asian shares fall amid Korean peninsula tensions
Most Asian Stock Markets fell Monday, with Korean shares sharply lower as Seoul prepared to hold live firing drills that threatened to escalate tensions with North Korea. South Korea's Kospi slumped 1.4 percent to 1,997.94. South Korea said Monday it would go forward with the drills from a front-line island despite North Korea's threat to retaliate. Sometime Monday, Marines were expected to conduct the one-day artillery drills on Yeonpyeong Island, which was shelled by a North Korean artillery b...

Forecasters say no sign of thaw
More snow flurries are predicted across Wales with sub zero temperatures expected overnight. The north east, mid and south west are most likely to see snow on Tuesday but forecasters say it could fall anywhere. Rail and bus services are returning to normal although there are some delays and cancellations. Meanwhile, 36 pupils and four teachers from King Henry VIII School in Abergavenny are stuck in America and are unlikely to be home for Christmas. She said looking further ahead there was no si...

Snowed Under: Winter Weather Wreaks Havoc at European Airports
The Holiday Season has got off to a stressful start in Europe as Extreme Weather conditions caused thousands of Flight Cancellations, leaving hordes of frustrated passengers stranded in airports all over the continent. Passengers were stranded in airports all over Europe on Monday as Bad Weather frustrated travel plans with just days to go to Christmas. Travel between European airports was almost impossible on the weekend as the ongoing winter weather caused endless delays and hundreds of canc...