Brussels eyes damages plan for snow-stricken airlines

Siim Kallas, European Commission Vice President in charge of Transport, met in Brussels with CEO's from major European airports on the 19 January 2011 to discuss how to prevent the problems that occurred at airports in December 2010 due to heavy snow fall.

The adverse weather forced major EU airports to close or partially close which significantly disrupted air traffic across Europe. Several thousand passengers had to spend the night at airports and 35,000 flights were cancelled. This is more than the cancellations for the whole of 2009.

The Commission will bring forward specific measures to address some of the key issues in the Airports Package which will be published later in 2011.

ESO: Background information: Statement by Vice President Kallas on air travel disruption across Europe http://www.europeansources.info/record/statement-by-vice-president-kallas-on-air-travel-disruption-across-europe/

European Commission: Press Release: IP/11/44: Air transport: Vice President Kallas convenes European airports to draw the lessons from air travel disruption due to snow http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/11/44&format=PDF&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

BBC News, 19.1.11: EU demands airports get ready for winter http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12229735

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