Everyfactor it’s essential find out about air, rail and street chaos as snow and ice wreaks havoc

More than 350,000 passengers flying to and from Amsterdam Schiphol – together with tens of hundreds from the UK – have now had their flights cancelled because of excessive wintry climate. On the sixth day of flight chaos on the Dutch hub, the house airline KLM is warning it may run out of de-icing fluid.

In the UK, the Met Office warns: “The current cold snap continues, before a deep area of low pressure threatens to bring further snow, strong winds and heavy rain to southern parts of the UK from Thursday night.”

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Here is all the pieces it’s essential know.

Air journey

For flyers, mass cancellations to and from Amsterdam Schiphol airport are persevering with for a sixth day attributable to snow and ice. KLM has grounded 600 flights to and from its hub on Wednesday. The Dutch nationwide airline warned on Tuesday night: “Persistent snow is expected tomorrow morning, combined with a strong southerly to southeasterly wind.

“KLM has therefore had to cancel 600 flights for Wednesday. By making this decision now, we can provide our passengers with timely clarity and prevent last-minute flight cancellations, leaving travellers stranded at Schiphol.

“Many KLM colleagues, including office staff and crew, are making extra efforts to assist our passengers at Schiphol as best as possible.

More than 100 KLM flights to and from the UK are cancelled on Wednesday. At least four services to and from Aberdeen, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Heathrow, Humberside, Leeds Bradford, London City, Manchester, Newcastle and Norwich have been grounded.

British Airways has cancelled 10 flights linking Heathrow with Amsterdam, and a round-trip from London City.

The airport says: “Due to persistent winter weather, only limited air traffic is possible to and from Schiphol. Our snow crews are working around the clock to keep the runways clear, and aircraft are being carefully de-iced to ensure everyone can travel safely.

“However, the wintry conditions are expected to cause disruptions to the flight schedule in the coming days.”

With some understatement, the airport provides: “This may result in delays and cancellations.”

On Tuesday afternoon, KLM warned that provides of de-icing fluid have been “under pressure”. The Dutch airline stated: “Due to a combination of extreme weather conditions and delays in supply from the provider, stock levels are running low.

“The supplier, based in Germany, is currently unable to guarantee timely replenishment. This challenge is currently widespread across Europe.

“De-icing is performed with a mixture of heated water and glycol. Every departing aircraft must be completely free of snow and ice before it can safely take off. KLM operates a fleet of 25 de-icing trucks, all of which have been in continuous use since Friday.”

Under air passengers’ rights guidelines, travellers whose flights are cancelled or severely delayed are entitled to be flown to their vacation spot as quickly as potential on any airline, and to be supplied with meals and motels till they get there.

Anyone reaching Amsterdam will discover their issues are solely starting. Dutch Railways is working solely a skeleton timetable and warns passengers: “Please allow for extra travel time, more frequent transfers and crowded trains.

“Are you travelling abroad? Start your journey earlier and plan extra times”

Many of the passengers whose journey plans through Amsterdam are disrupted have been rerouted via Paris CDG – however the French hub is now coated with heavy snow.

The French Civil Aviation Authority, the DGAC, has ordered airways to cancel 40 per cent of flights on Wednesday.

Passengers on Air France are worst affected, with at the very least 76 flights cancelled thus far – together with hyperlinks to and from Heathrow, Birmingham and Newcastle. Further cancellations are anticipated.

British Airways has grounded a single round-trip from Heathrow, whereas easyJet has cancelled a flight to and from Venice.

The second airport within the French capital, Paris Orly, has been turning flights away due to extreme snow. Many flights, together with longhaul arrivals from the Caribbean, have been diverted to extra southerly airports – notably Lyon and Marseille, but in addition Toulouse, Bordeaux and Basel. They are unable to divert to Paris CDG due to restrictions on actions on the main French airport.

Other flights, together with from Milan Linate and Madrid, returned to their beginning factors.

One Iberia departure from Madrid to Paris Orly initially diverted to London Heathrow – however ended up in Luton as an alternative after holding for 45 minutes above Kent.

Rail journey

Eurostar, which runs trains between London St Pancras International and Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris, has warned of “severe delays and last-minute cancellations”.

All the morning trains between London and Paris are delayed, some by over an hour. An early night round-trip between the 2 cities has been cancelled.

One service from Amsterdam through Brussels to London is being began on the Belgian capital. The practice operator warns: “Due to adverse weather conditions on the Eurostar network, our trains are likely to be subject to severe delays and last-minute cancellations.”

Railways within the far north of Scotland are nonetheless blocked by snow. ScotRail trains on key strains within the north of the nation have been cancelled attributable to heavy and drifting snow north of Lairg and on the complete Inverness-Kyle of Lochalsh line.

LNER is advising passengers to not journey between Edinburgh and Aberdeen because the rail agency can not “guarantee a service will run until Friday 9 January at the earliest”.

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Further south, LNER terminated an early Edinburgh-London King’s Cross practice at Newcastle “due to heavy snow”. Other providers on the East Coast Main Line have been cancelled or curtailed “due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time”.

In southeast England, rush-hour rail passengers face one other morning of disruption on the Elizabeth and Great Western strains to and from London Paddington attributable to overrunning engineering work.

In South Yorkshire, one other theft of signalling cables between Doncaster and Sheffield signifies that some strains are disrupted. As a consequence, trains must run at diminished speeds on some strains. Trains could also be delayed as much as half-hour or cancelled.

Roads

Roads in northern Scotland are severely disrupted and lots of routes are solely satisfactory with excessive care. Traffic Scotland has closed the A93 Perth-Aberdeen street between Braemar and the Spittal of Glenshee turn-off. The A939 linking Nairn on the Moray coast with the Grampians stays closed.

In Cumbria the primary north-south route via the Lake District, the A591, is closed due to ice between Keswick and Grasmere. The A57 Snake Pass in Derbyshire can be closed.

In Wales, the Horseshoe Pass on the A542 is closed.

Read extra: What rights do you need to compensation for cancelled or delayed flights?