Severe Weather conditions lead to cancelled flights at Barajas

About 166 flights have been cancelled at Madrid’s Barajas International Airport and several others delayed for about six hours owing to the heaps of snow and fog that have enveloped the area.

Airport authorities reported that the airport's four runways are operational despite the fact that the ice accumulation has slowed down the activities of the ground crews.

The airports and civil aviation agency said about the necessity to de-ice the planes before each takeoff owing to the snowstorms that hit the area on Sunday. The operation requires the time of up to one hour for large aircraft whereas a minimum time of 20 minutes for smaller planes.

Barajas suffered greater problems due to the snow storm in comparison to that of the other parts of Europe like France, Portugal, Britain, Belgium, Germany and Italy. As per the airport flight notices, there are delays ranging from two to six hours and this holds true even for some planes proceeding to Latin America.

There were cancellation cases of about 120 flights in Iberia. Spain highways were also hit by the storm and alert notices were sent to the 18 provinces for freezing temperatures and snowfall.