The winter weather with slippery conditions, rain and snowfall caused some severe traffic disruptions in Hesse on Wednesday. At Frankfurt Airport all take-offs were temporarily stopped at midday due to persistent freezing rain, but from the afternoon onwards a few planes were able to take off again. The airport operator justified the measure by saying that the aircraft could not be safely de-iced before takeoff. Previously, more than half of all planned flights had already been canceled due to the black ice and snow warnings. Of the 1,047 planned flights, almost 700 were canceled by evening. The German Weather Service in Offenbach had issued the highest severe weather warning level for parts of Hesse due to the extreme risk of black ice.
According to a spokeswoman, operations at the terminals at Frankfurt Airport were initially quiet and orderly. You have to look at how many passengers have to be rebooked. Camp beds had already been set up the day before in case passengers got stranded, and snacks and drinks were also kept ready. One of these passengers was Dave, who had taken off from New Delhi with his family the evening before. His onward flight to Boston had been canceled, he told the German Press Agency, and there might not even be a chance of onward travel this Thursday.
A Fraport spokeswoman also made it clear that there would likely be delays and flight cancellations at Frankfurt Airport this Thursday. A Lufthansa spokesman also called for understanding for the restrictions on Wednesday. “We expect a lot of snow and ice here in Frankfurt and in Munich at the two Lufthansa hubs. Of course that has an impact, you can’t operate normal air traffic there,” he told the dpa.