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Delhi shivers on coldest day in 40 years

Virgin withholds Heathrow fees over snow chaos: report
London (AFP) Jan 10, 2011 - Virgin Atlantic will stop paying its bills to Heathrow until the airport's operator explains why one heavy snowfall stranded thousands of passengers for days just before Christmas, a report said Monday. Richard Branson's airline has written to operator BAA, saying it plans to withhold landing and parking charges until it sees the results of an inquiry into the disruption, to be published in March, reported the Financial Times. "We've told BAA we are going to hold back some of the moneys we owe them," Virgin's chief executive Steve Ridgway told the paper, in a sign airlines are hitting back after a shutdown that cost them millions of dollars. "Because while we accept, and indeed we did, step up to our responsibilities to look after our customers, we feel they should also feel some of that accountability." One day of heavy snowfall on December 18 triggered chaos at Heathrow, all but closing the world's busiest international passenger airport for several days and leaving thousands of angry passengers to bed down in terminals.

The shutdown dealt a heavy financial blow to airlines as they bore costs such as giving refunds and rescheduling flights. Virgin expects the chaos will have cost it a minimum of 10 million pounds (15.5 million dollars, 12 million euros), according to Ridgway. In response to Virgin's plans, Spanish-owned BAA told the Financial Times: "Heathrow's conditions of use do not provide any basis for Virgin Atlantic or any other airline to withhold airport charges." BAA announced the probe into the snow shutdown immediately after the chaos. Ridgway said he wanted the inquiry to get to the bottom of what happened and spell out "when the airport reasonably should have reopened." "Then we want compensation for all the costs we unnecessarily incurred after that," he said. "We're going to do that by holding back the fees we pay BAA and when the inquiry comes out we will happily sit down and work out what the right numbers are."
by Staff Writers
New Delhi (AFP) Jan 10, 2011
New Delhi endured its coldest day in 40 years on Sunday as temperatures fell to three degrees Celsius (37.4 degrees Fahrenheit) during a cold snap across northern India.

As thousands of homeless people sought places in temporary shelters, more than 80 people were reported to have died due to the cold weather in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state.

"We have reports that 17 people have died in the last 24 hours," K.K Sinha, a disaster management official in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, said Monday. "So far 86 people have died in the winter chill over the last week."

Local authorities have been ordered to arrange bonfires on street corners as well as shelters to save the homeless.

"Sunday was Delhi's coldest day in the last four decades and we expect a further dip in the temperature in the coming days," B.P Yadav, director of weather forecasting at the India Meteorological Department, told AFP.

The Himalayan town of Leh, in the Ladakh region of Indian Kashmir, recorded a night temperature of minus 20.2 degrees Celsius.

Most areas of northern India have ordered all schools to close until January 15.

The Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported 11 deaths in the eastern states of Bihar and Jharkhand due to the ongoing cold wave.

Each winter, scores of homeless people in India die from cold due to lack of proper shelter, clothing and food.

earlier related report
Air France-KLM loses 70 mn euros due to snow
Paris (AFP) Jan 10, 2011 - Air France-KLM said on Monday that bad weather in December that led to the closure of airports across Europe cost the company an estimated 70 million euros ($90 million), the Franco-Dutch airline said in a statement.

"The passenger and cargo activities were each affected by the periods of heavy snowfall in December in both Europe and the United States," the airline said.

"Unit revenues rose slightly in passenger and more strongly in cargo. The impact on revenues of these weather disruptions is estimated at 70 million euros," it said.

The figure was double what the airline had forecast last month, when it forecast weather-related losses of 25-35 million euros.

Passenger numbers for the month dropped by 1.6 percent to 5.4 million, with medium-haul flights worst affected.

Aeroports de Paris (ADP), the company which runs the main French airports, has come under severe criticism for long delays and chaos for passengers at the main Paris airport Roissy Charles de Gaulle during the bad weather before Christmas.

Roissy airport is the main hub used by Air France. Another main European hub, Heathrow airport near London, has also been strongly criticised for delays and chaos.

earlier related report
Bad weather in US South disrupts air travel
Washington (AFP) Jan 9, 2011 - A massive snowstorm hit southern US states on Sunday, leading to hundreds of flight cancelations and creating hazardous driving conditions.

While Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, remained open, hundreds of flights were canceled there, local TV reported.

Delta Air Lines canceled 330 flights Sunday and was expected to ground another 1,400 Monday, the reports said. AirTran had 270 cancelations for Monday.

A heavy snowfall is also hitting Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. Large sections of regional highways were blocked due to car collisions. media reports said. But no fatalities have been reported so far.



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Fresh snow storm bears down on New York
New York (AFP) Jan 7, 2011
New Yorkers, still reeling from one of the biggest snow storms in the Big Apple's history, faced a fresh dump of the white stuff Friday as officials vowed to be better prepared this time. The city was paralyzed for two days during a massive post-Christmas blizzard. But only half a foot (15 centimeters) of snow was expected to fall over the New York region through Saturday, compared to nearly ... read more







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