The Hindu : New Delhi News : Snowfall hits flights from London

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Monday, Dec 20, 2010
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New Delhi

Snowfall hits flights from London

Staff Reporter

Photo: AP

A snow plough drives past an airplane parked at Heathrow AIrport in London on Sunday.

NEW DELHI: Bad weather and heavy snowfall in London impacted flights between London's Heathrow Airport and Indira Gandhi International Airport here on Sunday. Flights will continue to remain affected on Monday as well.

On Sunday, Air India cancelled its Delhi-London flights AI-115 and AI-111. “Following heavy snowfall in London, Heathrow Airport is closed for all flight operations since December 18,” Air India said in a statement.

All West-bound flights of Air India to other destinations in the United States, Canada and Europe are operating as per normal schedule, the statement added.

Kingfisher Airlines too had to cancel all its flights scheduled to operate to and from Heathrow Airport owing to non-availability of runway because of snow. Flights IT-001 New Delhi to London Heathrow and IT-002 London Heathrow to New Delhi were cancelled on Sunday.

The New Delhi to London Heathrow flight on Monday stands cancelled too. The airline has said it will waive “all cancellation and reissue penalties on all confirmed tickets”. Rebooking will be permitted at no extra charge for a period of 14 days from the original date of the flight. Jet Airways also cancelled its flights between Delhi and London Heathrow on Sunday.

According to an update by the British Airport Authority, Heathrow Airport would not accept arrivals on Sunday and would manage “a handful of departures as our airfield team continues to deal with the impact of bad weather and prepares the airport for a full re-opening on Monday…”

“The change in temperature has led to a “significant build up of ice on parking stands around the planes and this requires the airfield to remain closed until it is safe to move planes around… We have 200 aircraft parking stands and are removing 30 tonnes of snow from each stand, but the temperature remains firmly below zero and Heathrow Airport's capacity is limited to the extent that all parking stands are occupied by aircraft, making the job of clearing and treating them more difficult,” the update said.

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