London Heathrow closes airport as heavy snow disrupts travel

Blizzard conditions have closed airports in Europe, disrupting travel for tens of thousands of passengers in the peak weekend period before Christmas.

Only a handful of flights have been able to land or takeoff from London’s Heathrow, Europe’s busiest, as well Stansted and Gatwick airports.

Key international airports in Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and even Italy and Spain have also been affected by the heavy snowfalls across parts of northern Europe.

Air New Zealand has told media its daily Heathrow flights through Los Angeles and Hong Kong have been grounded, stranding hundreds of passengers, after the airport authorities cancelled all departures on Sunday from terminals 1 and 4.

More than 200,000 passengers were booked to leave Heathrow on Sunday and only limited flights are leaving terminals 3 and 5. Terminal 2 is closed for renovations.

Meanwhile, other airlines flying to London from New Zealand through connections in North America and Asia say travellers will go today at their own risk. This could mean paying for accommodation at stopover destinations.

Reports from London say travellers are being forced to to spend the night sleeping on terminal floors because all nearby hotels are booked out.

Sky News says passengers have complained of airlines and airport staff not being able to provide information about flight delays, while friends and families have slammed airline websites for not providing updates.

A spokesman for Heathrow operator BAA says: "We have listened carefully to the advice of our airside operations team and have reluctantly judged that while Heathrow's northern runway remains clear, the change in temperature overnight has led to a significant build up of ice on parking stands around the planes.

"This requires the airfield to remain closed until it is safe to move planes around.

"We are removing 30 tonnes of snow from each stand, but the temperature remains firmly below zero and Heathrow's capacity is limited to the extent that all parking stands are occupied by aircraft, making the job of clearing and treating them more difficult."

Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris told travellers to expect two-hour delays and cancellation of a quarter of flights. Flight cancellations and delays were also affecting Paris-Orly airport.

Germany's Frankfurt airport said at least 500 of a planned 1300 flights would be scrapped on Sunday.

Elsewhere, road and train travel has also been affected, In the UK and other parts of Europe. Freezing temperatures are again predicted to plummet Sunday night with more snow expected at the start of the week.