Airline travellers sleep at Zaventem international airport near Brussels. – Reuters

BERLIN: Frankfurt airport, Germany's busiest, cancelled some 490 flights Sunday due to heavy snowfall which has created chaos throughout the European air traffic network, a spokeswoman said.

“Fresh snow is expected to fall around midday and could continue until midnight,” she added, predicting further flights from the around 1,300 scheduled to be axed during the course of the day.

London's Heathrow Airport was not accepting any arrivals Sunday and was allowing only a handful of departures after snow and ice forced the closure of runways, but was preparing for a full reopening Monday, a statement on its website said.

A Pakistan Airlines Flight was stranded in Paris after taking off from Islamabad for Heathrow Airport. Similarly, another flight taking off from Lahore this morning for London was stuck in Germany.

Hundreds of stranded passengers had to spend the night on beds set up in the airport terminals, some for a second night in a row.

Unusually heavy snowfall had already seen hundreds of flights scrapped Friday and Saturday, including several due to severe winter weather at other European airports, as the holiday travel season got underway.

Flag carrier Lufthansa advised passengers to use the German rail service, which was also hit by delays and cancellations.

Opinion

Editorial

Ties with Tehran
Updated 24 Apr, 2024

Ties with Tehran

Tomorrow, if ties between Washington and Beijing nosedive, and the US asks Pakistan to reconsider CPEC, will we comply?
Working together
24 Apr, 2024

Working together

PAKISTAN’S democracy seems adrift, and no one understands this better than our politicians. The system has gone...
Farmers’ anxiety
24 Apr, 2024

Farmers’ anxiety

WHEAT prices in Punjab have plummeted far below the minimum support price owing to a bumper harvest, reckless...
By-election trends
Updated 23 Apr, 2024

By-election trends

Unless the culture of violence and rigging is rooted out, the credibility of the electoral process in Pakistan will continue to remain under a cloud.
Privatising PIA
23 Apr, 2024

Privatising PIA

FINANCE Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb’s reaffirmation that the process of disinvestment of the loss-making national...
Suffering in captivity
23 Apr, 2024

Suffering in captivity

YET another animal — a lioness — is critically ill at the Karachi Zoo. The feline, emaciated and barely able to...