Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport. RaBoe/Wikipedia.

Date / time: 11/02/2012 16:56:15 [UTC]
Event: Snow Storm
Area: Europe
Country: Italy
State/County: Capital City
Location: Rome

Description:

Despite the night's snowstorm, Rome's Fiumicino International Airport is fully operational again. Independently from the 40 incoming and 20 outgoing flights that were cancelled and some delays in scheduled fligts, all the airport's strips are fully operational for landing and take-off. Snow-ploughs worked through the night to remove the snow and ice accumulated on the strips and along the taxiways. However, adverse weather conditions and the abundant snowfall are also affecting other Italian and European airports, where flights continue to be cancelled or delayed by up to 60 minutes in respect of the flight schedule. Heavy snow fell across Italy on Saturday, blanketing the capital Rome, cutting off mountain villages and disrupting roads, railways and airports around the country. The return within days of the heaviest snowfalls in Rome since the 1980s shut sites such as the Colosseum but gave tourists and residents another chance to see landmarks such as Saint Peter's Square and the Trevi fountain dusted with snow. Rome's Fiumicino airport planned to cancel half of flights from 1600 GMT on Saturday, Italy's civil aviation authority Enac said in a statement. Several other airports across the country were closed or reducing operations. Unusually heavy snow has been falling over much of Italy, causing disruption of train and road transport especially in mountainous regions where emergency services have been struggling to reach isolated villages. On Saturday, buildings in several parts of the country were evacuated for fear that settled snow could cause them to collapse.