European chill may freeze Indian flight plans

NEW DELHI,Febrauary7,2012: The deep freeze in Europe is now threatening travel plans of flyers from India too. With London being the worst hit, Indian carriers that fly to the British capital either cancelled or clubbed flights on a snowy Sunday. While flights operated on schedule on Monday and no changes were reported till evening for Tuesday, airlines say they are watching the weather in Europe closely as the unprecedented cold is yet to abate there. London Heathrow operated only 70% of its flights on Sunday. Kingfisher cancelled its Mumbai-London and Delhi-London flights, while Air India clubbed its morning Delhi-London flight with the afternoon one. Jet operated one flight to London and rescheduled the other so that it landed there on Monday. Many flights were delayed at Amsterdam Schiphol and Heathrow cancelled 30% flights on Sunday. Most airlines that fly to London were hit. While British Airways spokespersons could not be reached, the Air France-KLM combine that operates from Amsterdam did not comment. Lufthansa said its flights were as per schedule. Anil Kalsi, head of a travel agents' association, said, "As of now, there isn't much impact. Passengers are enquiring about their flights but airlines did not affect any change on Monday."