Heavy snow in Europe causes travel chaos

London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports have closed because of snow and ice, and British Airways has suspended all domestic and European flights.

"We're talking about as little as three inches [seven centimetres] falling in an hour at Gatwick Airport. It doesn't sound like a lot to Canadians. But at Gatwick, it was enough to shut it down," said freelance reporter Larry Miller. "British Airways cancelled all flights. They hope later to start up again, but that remains to be seen.

"So a lot of flights were cancelled at Heathrow and there were a lot of people stranded. Last night, there were a number of passengers on the runway ready to take off, and ultimately, they were sent back to the terminal without their luggage and told to fend for themselves," Miller told CBC News.

One Canadian student who was trying to get to Vancouver said he sat in a British Airways plane for three hours Friday night before being allowed to return to the terminal. Once there, he was told his luggage was lost and the next available flight would depart Dec. 25.

At Gatwick, dozens of snowplows were deployed Friday in an effort to clear the airport's runway before operations were shut down.

Simon Calder, a travel writer for The Independent newspaper, said Heathrow usually handles more international travellers than any other airport in the world.

'That means just from [British Airways] alone, we are certainly going to see 20,000 or so people booked on long-haul flights who won't be travelling out of London. And everywhere from Nairobi to Entebbe to Cape Town to Los Angeles people who are stranded, trying to get back to Britain won't be travelling either," he said.

The airline said it expected flights would remain grounded for much of the day.

Hundreds of flights have been cancelled at airports in Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, France and the Netherlands. In Poland, cold weather is hampering train service.

To the south, in Bulgaria, nearly a metre of snow was reported on Friday. The main highway and airport in Varna was closed for several hours.

CBC News