Snow, ice force travelers to camp out in European airports

PARIS — Travelers spent Christmas Eve camped in airports in Paris and Brussels, Belgium, after new snowfall and shortages of de-icing fluid trapped passengers and snarled travel across Europe.

A scare about the security of a snow-laden terminal roof at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport made matters worse, with crowds asked to clear out of a section of Terminal 2E.

While travel in Britain was improving after days of headaches, snowfall stranded travelers in Ireland and Denmark and shut Duesseldorf airport in Germany for hours.

The exceptionally snowy weather in recent weeks has caused sweeping shutdowns, delays and other problems. Cities such as London and Paris, not as accustomed to flying planes in below-freezing temperatures as Moscow or Stockholm, buckled under the snow. Exasperated passengers assailed transport authorities for not being prepared.

To try to ease the pain of a Christmas under the glaring lights of an airport terminal, Paris' airport authority plans to hand out gifts to children forced to sleep at Charles de Gaulle overnight.

The airport also got an early Christmas gift flown in from the United States on Friday: two shipments of precious de-icing fluid to get planes off the ground. Authorities had halved the numbers of takeoffs from Charles de Gaulle throughout much of the day.

Cancellations and delays continued in the afternoon, with flights reduced by 35 percent. The airport authority said it hoped things would return to normal Saturday.

Security officers brought in 700 cots as well as blankets and floor mats; extra rooms were reserved in nearby hotels. The airport turned up the heat and installed all-night police and ambulance patrols for the strange holiday vigil, said airport authority chief Pierre Graff.

In Brussels, the Red Cross was bringing in hundreds of cots for passengers spending the night at the airport. Airport spokesman Jan Van der Cruysse said several hundred passengers probably would remain stranded overnight.

Adding to the holiday drama, passengers at the Paris airport were asked to leave a section of a major terminal for security reasons because of large amounts of snow on the roof, said Bernard Cathelain, deputy director of the Paris airport authority ADP.

France's famed strikes played a role in Friday's travel troubles, too. A walkout at a French factory involved in the production of de-icing fluid exacerbated shortages, forcing France to import the fluid, France's transport minister said.

Surprise snow threw Ireland's main Dublin airport into chaos with 40,000 travelers stranded or delayed. With people giving up on air travel a day before Christmas, Irish Ferries added extra crossings between Britain and Ireland.

"We have no spare capacity. We've run out of aircraft, de-icing fluid or crews at various locations," said Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary.

In Britain, major airports said services were operating largely as normal as the country thawed out. In Germany, Duesseldorf airport closed for several hours Friday because of new snowfal.