Dubai: Thousands of Gulf expatriates face an uncertain wait to see whether they can fly home for Christmas as heavy snow continues to disrupt flight schedules at some of Europe's busiest airports.
UAE carriers Emirates and Etihad Airways have both cancelled all flights to London's Heathrow airport until further notice.
Heathrow, one of the world's busiest aviation hubs, did not accept any incoming flights on Sunday. It allowed only a handful of flights to depart on Sunday due to "a significant build up of ice on parking stands around the planes".
In a statement on Sunday, Emirates said: "Heathrow airport remains closed due to extreme weather conditions. The airline is not accepting passengers for travel to Heathrow for the next 24 hours."
Etihad Airways said it had delayed all flights to Heathrow until further notice. A spokesperson said: "Two flights to London were diverted on Saturday; one to Manchester and one to Frankfurt. Passengers on the Manchester flight were transferred to London via coach, and passengers in Frankfurt received hotel or lounge accommodation.
Etihad's early morning flight to London, EY11, returned to Abu Dhabi on Sunday morning, following the unexpected announcement of the continued closure of Heathrow airport.
Passengers are being provided with hotel accommodation locally. The airline has advised travellers to check its website for updates on the situation.
Check website
Emirates also advised passengers travelling to or from the UK and Europe to check its website for updates on flights before leaving for the airport.
"Flight information will be updated on the website every five minutes. Passengers can also call 00971 4214 4444 (UAE) for information on their flights," a spokesperson said.
British Airways also cancelled three flights — BA0106, BA0108 and BA0104 — that were due to depart for Heathrow from Dubai on Sunday. Two flights — BA106 and BA104 — due to depart from Dubai on Monday have also been cancelled.
A statement from Heathrow Airport said: "Our airfield team continues to deal with the impact of the bad weather and is preparing the airport for a full re-opening on Monday.
"We have 200 aircraft parking stands and have a team of several hundred people working to treat these airside areas and to keep passengers in the terminal as warm and as comfortable as possible while we do everything we can to get Heathrow moving."
Airports in Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands are also experiencing significant delays as Europe continues to shiver in a prolonged cold snap.
Paris affected
Some 40 per cent of flights were likely to be cancelled at Paris's main Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport on Sunday because of snow, according to AFP.
Airport officials asked their European counterparts not to allow departures of Roissy-bound flights until 1330 GMT, a source said. Another source said some 20,000 passengers were awaiting their flights at various Roissy terminals.
Some 450 aircraft were however able to take off with delays averaging one hour and 20 minutes. Incoming flights were running an hour late.
Snow had forced the closure of the airport's four runways on Sunday morning and only two reopened by 1300 GMT.
The Orly airport, south of Paris, faced much less disruptions with flights running 45 minutes late on an average.
Planes turned back
The President of Emirates airline said he was "surprised" to be told by the British Airports Authority (BAA) on Sunday that two Emirates flights would not be allowed to land at London's Heathrow airport.
Tim Clark said: "Emirates was surprised to be told by the BAA that two of our flights that were en route to London from Dubai were not going to be allowed to land because the airport was closed. This is despite the fact that we operated these flights in compliance with the BAA requirements that Heathrow Airport would accept flight arrivals after 11am local time. This has caused enormous inconvenience to the 900 plus passengers on board, in addition to those who have already been stranded in the UK and Europe."
Emirates also had to cancel three additional flights to Heathrow on Sunday, which were also fully booked, Clark said. This will also impact return flights to Dubai. "Emirates' ability to mount the extra sections required to recover the enormous backlog is limited. We will discuss this issue with the BAA. All of Emirates other flights in and out of the UK are operational," he added.
