{"id":357445,"date":"2026-01-07T17:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T17:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/357445\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T17:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T17:55:07","slug":"hundreds-of-flights-cancelled-as-big-freeze-grips-western-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/357445\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of flights cancelled as big freeze grips western Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Dutch national airline KLM warned Schiphol Airport was close to running out of de-icing fluid after days of freezing conditions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Spokesperson Stephan Donker told news agency Reuters that it was an &#8220;exceptional situation&#8221; at the Dutch airport, where more than 1,000 travellers spent the night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A few hundred beds have been set up there before and after security checks with food and drinks also provided, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Donker warned of knock-on effects from the disruption, with further delays and cancellations possible in coming days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In Paris, more than 100 flights were cancelled at Charles de Gaulle airport and 40 more at Orly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Dozens of fllights have been delayed or cancelled in and out of Heathrow and Brussels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Some Eurostar rail services between London and Paris were delayed or cancelled on Wednesday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Almost half of mainland France was on alert for heavy snow and black ice, with lorries banned from the roads in some areas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s better to be here than stuck on the road,&#8221; driver Carle Bruno told news agency AFP at a roadside service station in the northern port of Le Havre.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Five people died in two separate regions of France earlier this week as a result of treacherous driving conditions, authorities said, while a woman was also killed in Bosnia&#8217;s capital, Sarajevo, after 40cm (16in) of snow fell on the city.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In Paris, Guinean teenager Boubacar Camara, sleeping in a tent on the outskirts of the city, told AFP he had &#8220;no choice but to keep on going&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;You just have to stay strong [and] make sure you don&#8217;t die,&#8221; the 19-year-old said. &#8220;We can&#8217;t do anything about the cold. I&#8217;m not used to this at all.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The rare sight of the French capital covered in snow drew residents and tourists out to ski down the slopes of Montmartre and along the Champs de Mars gardens below the Eiffel Tower.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s exceptional, it&#8217;s incredible,&#8221; said Pierre, a Parisian. &#8220;It&#8217;s magnificent and we&#8217;re enjoying it. We also came across a lot of tourists and they look so happy.&#8221; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dutch national airline KLM warned Schiphol Airport was close to running out of de-icing fluid after days of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-357445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}