BAA: Snow struggles to stay at Heathrow

Heathrow airport’s operating firm has said that its trouble with snow accumulation will always be a problem.

Travel Insurance News - 09/02/2012

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A spokesperson for the British Airports Authority said in a statement this week that cancellations are to be commonplace amid snowfall in the foreseeable future as a result of the facility consistently running at full capacity.

The comments comes after a wealth of criticism after the operating firm opted to cancel some 41 per cent of flights at Europe’s busiest air gateway at the weekend despite snow totals only measuring around three inches. Critics say the airport should have been prepared following the massive onslaught of disruptions over the Christmas season a year ago.

According to reports, about a third of the cancelled flights had been called off before the storm had even arrived; BAA officials said this was done to prevent cancellations spilling into the workweek. A spokesman for David Cameron said the PM defended the move, adding that the operator had to act according to the information it had been given at the time.

The BAA also said that many of the cancellations occurred because ground and flight crews for some airlines had gotten stuck at other airports in the region.

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