Two Air New Zealand flights to London will still depart tonight, but the airline warns they may not make it all the way to Heathrow if the bad weather persists.In a midday update, Air New Zealand said NZ39 – from Auckland to London via Hong Kong, an
Two Air New Zealand flights to London will still depart tonight, but the airline warns they may not make it all the way to Heathrow if the bad weather persists.
In a midday update, Air New Zealand said NZ39 – from Auckland to London via Hong Kong, and NZ2 – from Los Angeles to London, were on schedule to fly tonight, but may be forced to terminate at Hong Kong and Los Angeles, where accommodation is limited.
Flights into Asia, North America and Canada would also go ahead, but the airline has warned passengers that connecting flights to the UK or Europe on other carriers were likely to be affected.
Air New Zealand’s inbound flights from London via Los Angeles (NZ1) and Hong Kong (NZ38) were still scheduled to depart today, weather permitting, having been held over from yesterday.
Heavy snow forced London Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, to close both its runways for much of the weekend (local time), disrupting travel for tens of thousands of passengers in the peak weekend before Christmas.
Qantas is due to make a decision later today on whether its flights to London will depart.
Cathay Pacific said about 50 New Zealanders were affected when all its London-bound flights were cancelled yesterday.
The Hong Kong-based airline currently has two flights en-route to Heathrow due to touch down at 10pm (New Zealand time).
A spokesperson for the airline said New Zealanders could travel from Auckland to Heathrow, via Hong Kong, at their own risk - meaning if flights terminated they would have to find accommodation in Hong Kong at their own expense.
Only a handful of flights have been able to land or takeoff from Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick airports over the weekend since Saturday.
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.
Reports from London say travelers are being forced 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.
