Travelers have been forced to sleep in airports due to the flight chaos.
Snowfall paralyzed many flights and trains in Europe ahead of Christmas break, causing thousands of travelers to sleep at airports, with the European Union slammed the chaos as “unacceptable” disruption.
In London, Heathrow cancelled two thirds of flights, as long queues snaked for the Eurostar train link between Britain, France and Belgium, with passengers have been forced to sleep on terminal floors during four days of chaos.
In Germany, fresh snowfall caused gridlock at the country's main airport Frankfurt with no flights taking off or landing for around three and a half hours in the morning.
By the time it reopened at around 0800 GMT, 300 of the 1,300 daily flights at Europe's third-largest airport were cancelled, a spokesman told AFP, while others were diverted to Munich in southern Germany.
More than 1,000 travellers spent the night at Frankfurt airport, which laid out camp beds and distributed drinks, sandwiches and soft buttered pretzels.
In France, authorities allowed the two main airports in Paris, Charles de Gaulle and Orly, to remain open around the clock to clear the backlog of delayed flights.
One hundred civil security personnel had been sent on Monday evening with 300 beds and 2,500 blankets for those still stranded at Charles de Gaulle.
A strike by airport security staff in the southern city of Marseille -- although it was spared the snow -- caused further chaos.
For its part, the European Commission blasted the "unacceptable" travel chaos and summoned airport officials to a meeting to explain themselves.
"I am extremely concerned about the level of disruption to travel across Europe caused by severe snow. It is unacceptable and should not happen again," European transport commissioner Siim Kallas said in a statement.
Kallas said he would convene a meeting with airport officials in the coming days to get more explanations and "take a hard look" at what is needed to ensure they can operate more effectively during winter weather in the future.
"Airports must get serious about planning for this kind of severe weather conditions," he said.
"We have seen in recent years that snow is Western Europe is not such an exceptional circumstance," Kallas said.
In London, Heathrow cancelled two thirds of flights, as long queues snaked for the Eurostar train link between Britain, France and Belgium, with passengers have been forced to sleep on terminal floors during four days of chaos.
In Germany, fresh snowfall caused gridlock at the country's main airport Frankfurt with no flights taking off or landing for around three and a half hours in the morning.
By the time it reopened at around 0800 GMT, 300 of the 1,300 daily flights at Europe's third-largest airport were cancelled, a spokesman told AFP, while others were diverted to Munich in southern Germany.
More than 1,000 travellers spent the night at Frankfurt airport, which laid out camp beds and distributed drinks, sandwiches and soft buttered pretzels.
In France, authorities allowed the two main airports in Paris, Charles de Gaulle and Orly, to remain open around the clock to clear the backlog of delayed flights.
One hundred civil security personnel had been sent on Monday evening with 300 beds and 2,500 blankets for those still stranded at Charles de Gaulle.
A strike by airport security staff in the southern city of Marseille -- although it was spared the snow -- caused further chaos.
For its part, the European Commission blasted the "unacceptable" travel chaos and summoned airport officials to a meeting to explain themselves.
"I am extremely concerned about the level of disruption to travel across Europe caused by severe snow. It is unacceptable and should not happen again," European transport commissioner Siim Kallas said in a statement.
Kallas said he would convene a meeting with airport officials in the coming days to get more explanations and "take a hard look" at what is needed to ensure they can operate more effectively during winter weather in the future.
"Airports must get serious about planning for this kind of severe weather conditions," he said.
"We have seen in recent years that snow is Western Europe is not such an exceptional circumstance," Kallas said.
