Airport Operators Criticized As Snow Adds To Europe’s Travel Chaos
By RFE RL
(RFE/RL) — Fresh snowfall is causing more misery for Christmas travelers in Europe with airports in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Brussels continuing to cancel flights.
Angry travelers are struggling to get to their destinations by Christmas amid a backlog of thousands of passengers who have been forced to sleep on terminal floors for up to three days.
The European Commission today said the travel chaos caused by the failure of airport officials to prepare for heavy snowfalls this week was “unacceptable.”
European Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas said he would convene a meeting with airport officials in the coming days to “take a hard look” at ways to improve the situation.
Kallas’s statement comes amid calls in Britain for an investigation into BAA, the private company that operates London’s Heathrow Airport.
BAA and the private Spanish firm that controls it, Ferrovial, are accused of failing to make adequate investments on snow-removal equipment needed to keep an international transport hub operating smoothly through winter storms.
