Flights, trains canceled amid severe UK snow
Severe winter weather has caused widespread disruption to air, rail, and road travel across the UK and Europe.
More than 350,000 passengers flying to and from Amsterdam Schiphol, including tens of thousands from the UK, have had their flights canceled due to extreme snow and icy conditions, News.Az reports, citing The Independent.
On the sixth consecutive day of flight chaos at the Dutch airport, KLM has warned it may run out of de-icing fluid.
The Met Office in the UK issued a warning, stating: “The current cold snap continues, before a deep area of low pressure threatens to bring further snow, strong winds and heavy rain to southern parts of the UK from Thursday night.”
KLM staff, including office employees and crew, are working overtime to assist affected passengers. On Wednesday, more than 100 KLM flights to and from the UK were canceled, grounding services to and from Aberdeen, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Heathrow, Humberside, Leeds Bradford, London City, Manchester, Newcastle, and Norwich.
British Airways also canceled 10 flights connecting Heathrow with Amsterdam, as well as a round-trip service from London City. The disruptions are expected to continue as the wintry conditions persist.
The airport says: “Due to persistent winter weather, only limited air traffic is possible to and from Schiphol. Our snow crews are working around the clock to keep the runways clear, and aircraft are being carefully de-iced to ensure everyone can travel safely.
“However, the wintry conditions are expected to cause disruptions to the flight schedule in the coming days.”
With some understatement, the airport adds: “This may result in delays and cancellations.”
Railways in the far north of Scotland are still blocked by snow. ScotRail trains on key lines in the north of the country have been cancelled due to heavy and drifting snows north of Lairg and on the entire lnverness-Kyle of Lochalsh line.
LNER is advising passengers not to travel between Edinburgh and Aberdeen as the rail firm “cannot that guarantee a service will run until Friday 9 January at the earliest”.
Further south, LNER terminated an early Edinburgh-London King's Cross train at Newcastle “due to heavy snow”. Other services on the East Coast Main Line have been cancelled or curtailed “due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time”.
In southeast England, rush-hour rail passengers face another morning of disruption on the Elizabeth and Great Western lines to and from London Paddington due to overrunning engineering work.
In South Yorkshire, another theft of signalling cables between Doncaster and Sheffield means that some line are disrupted. As a result, trains will have to run at reduced speeds on some lines. Trains may be delayed up to 30 minutes or cancelled.
Roads in northern Scotland are severely disrupted and many routes are only passable with extreme care. Traffic Scotland has closed the A93 Perth-Aberdeen road between Braemar and the Spittle of Glenshee turn-off. The A939 linking Nairn on the Moray coast with the Grampians remains closed.
Similar news
