Thousands stranded at Frankfurt airport
More than 3,000 travellers spent Monday night at the Frankfurt airport after runways were closed down because of snow and ice.
Authorities at Germany’s biggest airport set up 1,500 camp beds and put another 5,000 passengers whose flights had been cancelled into hotels, an airport spokesman said.
Many passengers also spent the night on board grounded aircraft.
A total of 229 flights through Frankfurt, a key European transport hub, were cancelled on Monday.
The runways were set to open again Tuesday morning and flights were expected to go ahead as scheduled, the airport spokesperson said. According the airport's website, planes were taking off and landing on Tuesday morning.
“One or another passengers were naturally not particularly happy about the situation,“ the spokesman said. But by and large, things had been “relatively calm” and there had been “no aggression," he added.
Airport authorities closed the last runways at 10:44 pm Monday night because of the hard-packed snow and ice. Shortly before 3 am Tuesday, one runway had been opened, while others soon followed.
The spokesman said the airport would be “getting a serious move on” Tuesday morning. While the first priority was to move all the travellers who’d spent the night in hotels through the airport and onto their flights, he said that all 560 flights scheduled to take off and land from Frankfurt on Tuesday could go ahead.
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Authorities at Germany’s biggest airport set up 1,500 camp beds and put another 5,000 passengers whose flights had been cancelled into hotels, an airport spokesman said.
Many passengers also spent the night on board grounded aircraft.
A total of 229 flights through Frankfurt, a key European transport hub, were cancelled on Monday.
The runways were set to open again Tuesday morning and flights were expected to go ahead as scheduled, the airport spokesperson said. According the airport's website, planes were taking off and landing on Tuesday morning.
“One or another passengers were naturally not particularly happy about the situation,“ the spokesman said. But by and large, things had been “relatively calm” and there had been “no aggression," he added.
Airport authorities closed the last runways at 10:44 pm Monday night because of the hard-packed snow and ice. Shortly before 3 am Tuesday, one runway had been opened, while others soon followed.
The spokesman said the airport would be “getting a serious move on” Tuesday morning. While the first priority was to move all the travellers who’d spent the night in hotels through the airport and onto their flights, he said that all 560 flights scheduled to take off and land from Frankfurt on Tuesday could go ahead.
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