More than 100 flights cancelled in Europe due to icy conditions

More than 100 flights at Frankfurt Airport have been cancelled due to heavy snowfall and icy conditions.

Airport operator Fraport said on Monday that 102 out of 1,052 flights scheduled for the day had been impacted, and the number of cancelled flights may continue to rise throughout the day, with the disruptions currently expected to last until noon local time (1100 GMT).

On Sunday, thousands of tourists found themselves stranded in northern Finland as extreme cold also forced the cancellation of flights at Kittilä airport.

The temperature at the airport dropped to minus 37C on Sunday morning, after several days of similar frigid weather, making de-icing of aircraft and other operations difficult, Finland's national public broadcaster Yle reported.

The deep freeze is expected to continue in Kittila, which is located in Finnish Lapland in the sparsely populated north, on Monday, when the Finnish Meteorological Institute predicts temperatures of almost minus 40C.

Finns are generally used to frosty winter temperatures but this year's cold, which has affected wide regions of northern, central and eastern Europe, is more severe than in other years.

Heavy snowfall, high winds and icy roads have made travel difficult in parts of Europe.

In Germany, train passengers were still experiencing long delays and cancellations on Sunday after rail operator Deutsche Bahn shut down all services in the north of the country on Friday due to strong snowfall.

Authorities announced that all schools would remain closed and switch to online classes on Monday in North Rhine-Westphalia, the country's most populous western state, after forecasts of icy roads across the region.

In the Baltic countries of Estonia and Lithuania, drivers were asked to postpone all non-essential travel because of expected blizzards, while neighbouring Latvia issued a snow alert for the west of the country.

Last week, Schiphol Airport, on the outskirts of Amsterdam, set up hundreds of field beds overnight and served breakfast to more than 1,000 stranded passengers as staff worked to clear snow from runways and de-ice planes after at least 800 flights were cancelled on Wednesday at the airport, one of Europe’s busiest aviation hubs.