Europe is reeling from a double whammy of weather in the north and air traffic controller slowdowns in the south. Anyone with current plans to travel virtually anywhere in Europe, should call ahead and confirm schedules with airlines.
Spain’s air traffic problems
In Spain, air traffic controllers went on strike yesterday. The workers are supposed to be back on duty early on this morning (Saturday) but the delays and planes needing rescheduling will continue at least through the weekend.
Air space over Madrid, the Canary Islands and Majorca is closed due to the labour conflict of the Spanish air traffic controllers. According to the information provided by Eurocotrol, it is expected that the air operations in these airports will be cancelled until 01:00 a.m. Spanish Mainland time, therefore customers are kindly requested not to go to the airports in these regions.
Iberia will update the information on its web site (www.iberia.com) and the social media. It will also launch a flight recovery plan once the air space has been opened. Long haul flights departing in the early morning will have priority.
Hundreds of flights were delayed and thousands were stranded in Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza. “The air traffic controllers are massively abandoning their posts,” an AENA spokeswoman told CNN.
European early snowfall has crippled airports
Frigid weather is playing havoc with Northern Europe’s airports from Great Britain down through the Netherlands, France and Germany. Even the train systems are being slowed by the unseasonable cold.
…in the north, all the misery involved the cold and the snow. In Britain, flights at Gatwick Airport were resuming on Friday, after two days in which the airport was closed entirely, with more than 1,200 flights canceled, as frantic efforts failed to clear the snow as it fell. But even on Friday, after workers removed 150,000 tons of snow from the runways in 36 hours, there was only limited service to and from the airport, and hundreds of stranded passengers remained camped out in the terminals.
Many flights from airports across the rest of northern Europe — including Charles de Gaulle in Paris, Schiphol in Amsterdam, Tegel in Berlin, and the airports in Edinburgh and Vienna — were canceled or delayed.
Europe’s efficient train services were also stymied. About 3,000 train passengers were stranded overnight on Wednesday in Germany, while 200 passengers spent the night in trains in Frankfurt after hotels filled up. Many train lines were simply shut down. Sixteen Eurostar trains were canceled on Friday.
The cold has resulted in at least 40 deaths and is affecting Poland and the Czech Republic as well.
In Poland, police reported 12 deaths overnight, raising the death toll there to 30 over the past three days. Police were carrying out street patrols in hopes of getting drunks and homeless people into shelters since they make up the bulk of those who freeze to death each year.
Animal lovers in Poland were also mobilizing, with some opening their cellars to stray cats and others pulling ducks from frozen lakes. Foresters have also been putting out fodder for bison, elk and other forest-dwellers.
In the Czech Republic, the death toll rose to four after a man was found frozen in Prague. In Germany, three people have now been killed, while authorities in northern England said they had found the bodies of two elderly residents this week who are believed to have frozen to death.
The FAA that basically said the Mexican air transport system has approved it once again
Claiming significant progress, the FAA decided to approve the Mexican air transport system after giving it failing grades four months ago. The miserable grade from the FAA has weighed heavily on the Mexican system and now flights back and forth with the USA can go back to normal status.
Wednesday’s move means that Mexican carriers will again be allowed to add new routes or flights serving the U.S., including expansion of partnership arrangements, or code-sharing flights, with U.S. carriers. In its announcement, the FAA said it agreed to Mexico’s request to continue providing “technical assistance to support and maintain the changes” put in place over the past few months.
It is unusual for a country to regain the top U.S. safety ranking, called Category 1, so quickly after being stripped of that rating. FAA teams have authority to call for a downgrade when they determine that a country has failed to maintain minimum international standards in areas such as the technical competence of regulators, adequate numbers of inspectors and reliable safety records.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
