Heavy snowfall in Europe grounds flights to London

Hundreds of passengers travelling to London were stranded at the Mumbai airport yesterday owing to heavy snowfall in the UK. Britain's first big freeze this winter resulted in at least four London-bound flights operating out of the city airport being rescheduled. Airport officials said these flights were likely to operate on Monday. "All departures were rescheduled while the arrivals were delayed," said a Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) spokesperson, according to a report by Hindustan Times.

A Jet Airways spokesperson said that it rescheduled one of its flights acting on an advisory from the British airports authority. "The authorities have asked all airlines to cut down flights owing to heavy snowfall expected in the next two days," said the spokesperson. About 300 city-bound passengers booked to travel in an Air India flight scheduled to leave from the Heathrow airport at 3:30 p.m. were stuck at the airport till 11:30 p.m. because the cabin crew assigned to operate the flight was asked to operate a Delhi-bound flight stuck in the snow-clad airfield since Saturday evening.