A pan-European cold wave has left thousands of passengers stranded, with real-time data from FlightAware showing 616 cancellations and 6,885 delays by midday. London Heathrow logged 13 cancellations and more than 400 delays; Gatwick reported six cancellations and 329 delays.
Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris Charles-de-Gaulle bore the brunt, but UK airports felt the ripple effect as knocked-out rotations cascaded through schedules. British Airways, easyJet and KLM triggered re-booking policies, while corporate booking tools flagged record re-shop activity as travellers hunted for alternative routings.
![616 flight cancellations and 6,800 delays hit Heathrow, Gatwick and European hubs]()
With routings shifting from air to rail or via third-country hubs, travellers should double-check visa requirements; VisaHQ can expedite Schengen and other travel documents for UK nationals and residents, and its intuitive platform (https://www.visahq.com/united-kingdom/) lets managers track application status in real time.
Travel managers should advise employees to use airline apps for digital boarding-pass re-issuance and to retain proof of delay for EU261 compensation claims (where weather was not the determining factor). For time-sensitive projects, switching to Eurostar or videoconferencing may prove cheaper than last-minute fares.
Meteorologists expect the jet-stream to remain sluggish for 48 hours, meaning further de-icing bottlenecks are likely. Firms with high volumes of intra-EU travel this month should budget for increased hotel and per-diem costs.
Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris Charles-de-Gaulle bore the brunt, but UK airports felt the ripple effect as knocked-out rotations cascaded through schedules. British Airways, easyJet and KLM triggered re-booking policies, while corporate booking tools flagged record re-shop activity as travellers hunted for alternative routings.
With routings shifting from air to rail or via third-country hubs, travellers should double-check visa requirements; VisaHQ can expedite Schengen and other travel documents for UK nationals and residents, and its intuitive platform (https://www.visahq.com/united-kingdom/) lets managers track application status in real time.
Travel managers should advise employees to use airline apps for digital boarding-pass re-issuance and to retain proof of delay for EU261 compensation claims (where weather was not the determining factor). For time-sensitive projects, switching to Eurostar or videoconferencing may prove cheaper than last-minute fares.
Meteorologists expect the jet-stream to remain sluggish for 48 hours, meaning further de-icing bottlenecks are likely. Firms with high volumes of intra-EU travel this month should budget for increased hotel and per-diem costs.
