Over the last week, the south of Germany and several nearby countries have dealt with days of heavy snowfall.
The storm that descended onto Munich over the weekend of December 2-3 blanketed the city in over 17 inches of snow and also sowed significant chaos onto those who need to leave or enter the city — after a day of flight cancelations through Saturday and Sunday, Munich International Airport reopened briefly only to shutter again by Tuesday.
Related: A budget airline’s fee is causing a storm of outrage
“Announced freezing rain during the night: air traffic will be suspended until 12 noon on Tuesday, December 5,:” the airport said in announcement put out through the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “There will be no take-offs and landings from the start of operations at 6 a.m. until 12 noon.”
Passenger planes stand on the tarmac at Munich International Airport following the cancellation of flights due to freezing rain on Dec. 5, 2023 near Freising, Germany. Photo by Leonhard Simon/Getty Images.
Leonhard Simon/Getty Images
Have a flight out of Munich? Don’t head to the airport (yet)
After 12 p.m., some flights started landing and taking off on a very limited basis to start rerouting the thousands who had been left stranded by the cancelation of nearly 700 flights One Lufthansa (DLAKF) – Get Free Report flight from New York’s JFK Airport that was approaching the airport was given permission to land.
More Travel:
A new travel term is taking over the internet (and reaching airlines and hotels)The 10 best airline stocks to buy nowAirlines see a new kind of traveler at the front of the plane
Warning travelers that it can still be safely “assumed that the majority of flights will also have to be canceled during the rest of the day for safety reasons,” both airport and airline authorities are encouraging anyone not yet at the airport to keep a close eye on on the status of their flight online and not come to the airport in most cases.
“There are still severe restrictions in air traffic,” Munich International Airport said in an X update at 2 p.m. local time. “The flight schedule is severely reduced due to the extreme weather conditions. Please contact your airline before traveling to the airport to find out your flight status.”
Amid inclement weather, some passengers have been stranded in airport for days
A Lufthansa spokesperson further said that hundreds of people have been stuck in the airport for in what in some cases was already two or three nights either due to not having a visa to enter Germany or because they chose not to risk a trip to the city during the snowstorm.
“Several hundred passengers are staying overnight in the terminal either because they don’t have a visa to enter the country or because they are not taking up the offer to book a hotel room,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Those on flights when the snow storm Munich also ran into significant difficulties on their way to or from Munich. A Dec. 1 United Airlines (UAL) – Get Free Report flight from Munich to Chicago that was initially derailed for a few hours due to mechanical trouble left travelers stranded for days when the snow intensified and the airport shut down in the meantime.
“I was on the original Friday flight 12/1 for well over 6 hours and again on Sunday 12/3 for over 10.5 hours,” one of the travelers wrote in a Facebook group for stranded passengers. Others described difficulties hailing a ride or getting stuck on the train when trying to get out of the airport and to the city.
