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EU airports must ensure minimum flights despite snow

19 January 2011, 23:37 CET
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(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission warned airports on Wednesday of looming regulation to prevent a repeat of the Christmas travel chaos and demanded to see their contingency plans for next winter.

European transport commissioner Siim Kallas held a meeting with top executives from the biggest airports after December snow forced passengers to sleep at terminals as tens of thousands of flight were cancelled.

"Volcanic ash is difficult for the aviation industry to predict, but we know that winter arrives every year and we should be ready for it," Kallas said, referring to the Icelandic volcano eruption in April that closed much of Europe's airspace.

Kallas urged airports to provide him "as soon as possible" with a progress report on contingency planning for next winter.

At the same time, the transport commissioner said he would propose measures to ensure airports provide a minimum service during a weather crisis.

"What we can do at European level is strengthen the regulatory framework -- as is necessary -- to help," he said in a statement.

"In particular, we need to introduce minimum service and quality requirements at European airports for our passengers."

The commission said 35,000 flights were cancelled last month -- more than for the whole of 2009.

Kallas, who had blasted the travel chaos as "unacceptable" in December, met with officials from several airports including Paris, Frankfurt, London's Heathrow and Amsterdam's Schiphol.


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