Heavy snow disrupted European flights overthe weekend and stranded hundreds of drivers as far south as Italyas a white Christmas appeared increasingly likely in manycountries.
On the last weekend for travellers before Christmas, some ofthe continent's biggest airports were shut, forcing thousands tobed down in the terminals and leaving some in no man's land,without a visa to provide the transit lounge.
London Heathrow, the world's busiest international passengerairport, remained paralysed on Sunday due to ice on the tarmac,with no flights coming in and just a handful leaving.
Thousands were stuck there overnight, with furious pop singerLily Allen among those caught up in the drama.
The west London airport hopes for a 'wide re-opening on Monday'.
Hundreds more slept at London Gatwick, Europe's eighth busiestpassenger airport.
'Today is Gatwick's busiest day of the festive getaway and weare doing everything we can to get passengers on their way,' aspokeswoman said.
Eurostar, which runs high-speed passenger trains linking Londonwith Paris and Brussels, was operational with speed restrictions thatadded up to an hour to journey times.
Sporting events were also hit, with Sunday's big English PremierLeague clash between title rivals Chelsea and Manchester Unitedpostponed and European Cup rugby union matches called off.
Temperatures plunged to minus 19 degrees Celsius in Pershore,west central England.
Britain's Met Office national weather service said snowfall thismonth have been the heaviest for December since 1981.
Frankfurt airport, Germany's busiest, cancelled more than 540flights on Sunday due to hard snow, with further flurriesexpected.
A spokeswoman predicted more flights from the around 1300scheduled would be axed.
More than 1000 stranded passengers had to pass the night onbeds set up in the airport terminals, some for a 2nd night.
Two runways at Paris's Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport,continental Europe's biggest air hub, reopened on Sunday but theother two were closed as fresh snow fell. About 40 per cent offlights were to be cancelled, aviation authorities said.
Several hundred passengers whose planes were rerouted to Roissydue to the settlement of London Heathrow on Saturday spent the nightin departure lounges.
The government asked other airports to stop diverting flightsto Roissy until 2.30pm (0030 AEDT Monday) to aid alleviate the backlog.
About 20,000 passengers were patiently awaiting their flights atvarious Roissy terminals.
However, about 450 aircraft were able to drive off, with delaysaveraging one minute and 20 minutes. Incoming flights were running anhour late.
Orly airport, south of Paris, faced much less disruption, withflights running 45 minutes later on ordinary and several cancelled.
Only a few bus services in the French capital were operating onSunday and none at all in the suburbs, a spokesman for the citytransport authorities said.
The city's iconic Eiffel Tower was unsympathetic to visitors.
In the Netherlands, several hundred people spent the night atAmsterdam-Schiphol airport, where air traffic continued to beseverely disrupted on Sunday.
In northern Italy the place was improving after two days ofchaos on the roadstead and in the airports in Tuscany.
Pisa airport, the hub of several budget airlines, reopenedSunday having been shut since Friday. About 200 passengers forcedto spend the dark in the aerodrome were issued with blankets and hotdrinks.
In Belgium, about 1500 people spent the dark at Brusselsairport. Most of them were on 18 rerouted flights bound forHeathrow.
Because Britain is away the Schengen zone (passport-freetravel within Europe), many passengers did not take the visas toleave the transit lounge.
In the Balkans, four people froze to end this weekend. Twomen, aged 72 and 50, were found around Banja Luka in Bosnia, whilean elderly couple were found dead by their neighbours in Serbia.
In Croatia, temperatures plummeted to minus 21 degrees Celsiusin the northern township of Cakovec.
The snowfall even reached as far south as Algeria, where twopeople died in a road accident and traffic ground to a halt onseveral major roads.
The blow that brought the chaos was moving slowly south overEurope, but the cold conditions was expected to extend across muchof the continent into next week.
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