With costly global warming flop, EU tells airports to prepare much more for winters, new legal regulations coming forcing them to do so

1/19/11, "EU demands airports get ready for winter," BBC

"Europe's transport commissioner has said airports must be ready to meet minimum service standards to prevent a repeat of this winter's travel chaos.

A total of 35,000 flights were cancelled in December alone because of freezing temperatures and heavy snow.

• Thousands were forced to sleep overnight at European airports when flights were grounded.

Siim Kallas said that airports must introduce contingency plans and warned EU legislation was looming.

"We know that winter arrives every year and we should be ready for it," Mr Kallas said after meeting with officials from several European airports including

• Paris, Frankfurt, London's Heathrow and Amsterdam's Schiphol.

He said the responsibility to plan for extreme weather conditions lay with the aviation industry but said that the EU would do all it could to help passengers.

"We need to introduce minimum service and quality requirements at European airports for our passengers," he said.

"Those requirements will form part of the legislative proposals in the Airport Package due later this year."

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

At the time of the delays, airport operators said that the volume of snow had been exceptional and that safety concerns had been their priority."

• photo Frankfurt airport, Reuters