London Heathrow Airport cancels ‘dozens’ of flights amid freezing conditions
People walk across Westminster Bridge during snowfall in central London on January 20, 2013. Passengers were forced to sleep on the floor at London’s Heathrow Airport overnight, media said, after heavy snow grounded hundreds of flights and left thousands of people stranded.
London Heathrow Airport — Europe’s busiest hub — canceled "dozens" of flights on Tuesday amid freezing weather conditions across Europe.
Heathrow canceled 10 percent of flights — or nearly 200 — on Monday because of snow, Reuters reported.
That was about half the number cut on Sunday.
Most of the canceled flights were operated by British Airways.
However, after canceling around 350 flights since Friday, British Airways told Bloomberg that its operations were on their way back to normal.
The problems at Heathrow come despite the airport having spent more than $57 million on improving its snow defenses since 2010 — the year that it almost shut down when snow hit just before Christmas.
The airport now has 130 snow-clearing vehicles.
Meanwhile, heavy snow and frost have been cited in the deaths of seven people in Britain — including, according to ITV, a mailman with the Royal Mail.
John Bircham, a 25-year veteran of the postal service, died while carrying out his rounds in Somerset.
A 25-year-old woman, Bernadette Lee, meantime died after collapsing in the snow on her way home after a night out in subzero temperatures.
Another man died in a road accident.
And four people died in an avalanche in Scotland on Saturday.
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