Airport News

Airport News

An overnight snowstorm in northwestern Europe forced the closure of Frankfurt Airport and flight delays in Paris and Brussels.

Take-offs and landings at Frankfurt were halted at noon on Tuesday for two hours to clear snow from the runways. Airlines, including Lufthansa, cancelled about 700 flights of a daily total of 1,200 as the airport was only partially reopened in the afternoon. In France, a Tunisair plane slid off the runway on landing at Orly airport, forcing the closure of a runway at Paris's second hub while 140 passengers were evacuated.

France's civil aviation authority cancelled a quarter of flights at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, the second-largest in Europe, and a fifth at Orly. Brussels airport reported extensive delays and some diversions of planes to Ostend or Amsterdam.

The high-speed Eurostar train service connecting London and the French and Belgian capitals, and the Thalys line linking Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Cologne in Germany were both suspended.

Brussels's two main rail stations were closed.

Social media were full of messages about the unusual mid-March snowfall of up to 20 cm (8 inches) and the cold. It was set to be the first mid-March day since 1925 that the daytime temperature in Belgium had not risen above freezing.