Snow in Germany freezes hundreds of flights and halts train traffic

Berlin (Union)

The largest German airports, the railway company Deutsche Bahn, and cities and municipalities announced yesterday the cancellation of hundreds of flights, and the disruption of the movement of trains and cars on the roads due to weather conditions and snowfall accompanied by an unusual frost wave compared to previous years. Fraport, the company that operates Frankfurt Airport, the largest in Germany, said in a statement that 570 flights out of 1,047 flights scheduled for yesterday were canceled due to snowfall and the weather authority’s warning of the continuation of cold weather in the coming days.
The company added that it does not rule out canceling more flights, saying that it advises travelers to inquire with airline companies about the flow of air traffic to and from the airport.
For its part, the railway company warned of the weather conditions, saying, “Many flights have been cancelled, especially between major cities, such as Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Cologne, due to the weather conditions and passengers on planes resorting to using trains.”
Regarding road traffic, cities and municipalities in the states of Baden-Württemberg in the southwest, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg in the north, and Brandenburg in the east announced dozens of accidents and the closure of highways due to snowfall.
Police in the city of Hamburg said that hundreds of snow removal vehicles and employees are working to remove snow from the streets in order to facilitate movement to and from the largest city in the north of the country.