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[nahia]

NEW DELHI: A massive snow storm in the UK ruined Christmas plans for hundreds of passengers across the country and the rest of the world with the Heathrow airport shut for almost all operations on Saturday and Sunday. All flights to London were cancelled and only a few departures were permitted to clear the backlog. Several European cities faced similar problems due to poor weather conditions and many airlines were operating a restricted schedule.

With the Met department predicting a fresh snow storm by Sunday night for several areas, including Scotland and northeast England , airlines said they were not sure when services would resume.

At least six flights from Delhi were also cancelled on Sunday, including one each of Jet Airways and Kingfisher and two each of Air India and British Airways. Many other flights that were operating to European cities were delayed by 30 minutes to an hour. When the news of the cancellations poured in late on Saturday, airline offices were flooded by calls from harried passengers who found themselves without bookings. "I was in India only for the weekend and had to be back office on Monday. However, all flights seem to be cancelled and I will now have to work from here. We are now trying to get tickets on the first flights out of here,'' said Aditi Shankar, a banker in London.

With no improvement in the weather till Sunday evening , airlines said that Monday schedules were also likely to be affected. Air India had not cancelled its Monday operations from both Delhi and Mumbai and said that with about a 60% occupancy on London-bound flights, they would be able to accommodate passengers of cancelled flights on these as soon as operations started. Their long-haul operations to USA and Canada continued to operate without a problem.

A Jet Airways official said they were planning to operate additional flights to clear the backlog. "Flights 9W 122 from Delhi and 9W 118 from Mumbai on Saturday were diverted to Brussels because of the closure of London Heathrow airport. Guests are being rerouted by all modes of transport available to London. We will also operate extra flights from Brussels to London when the airport opens. Jet Airways is planning to operate additional flights from London to India to clear the stranded guests. Normal operations are expected to resume by Monday afternoon. An additional Airbus A330 is expected to be operated from Mumbai to London Heathrow on December 21,'' he said.

Kingfisher Airlines had cancelled two Monday flights as well, IT 007 from Mumbai and IT001 from New Delhi. The airline may waive cancellation and reissue penalties on tickets for these flights and re-booking would be permitted at no additional charge for a period of 14 days from their original date.