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Here’s your Xmas present: A flight in Europe

Hundreds of travellers in Europe got their own special Christmas present — an actual plane flight on Saturday after spending the night curled up on hard airport floors in Brussels and Paris.

Updated on: Dec 26, 2010, 01:54:09 IST
AP | By , Paris
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Hundreds of travellers in Europe got their own special Christmas present — an actual plane flight on Saturday after spending the night curled up on hard airport floors in Brussels and Paris.

HT Image
HT Image

Air traffic returned to nearly normal at Paris’ main airport, where hundreds were stuck overnight and personnel handed out Christmas puppets and chocolates to stranded families.

Snowfall and severe shortages of deicing fluid meant hundreds of flights were cancelled at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport and other European airports on Friday. But sunny skies and two shipments of deicing fluid from the United States helped Charles de Gaulle rebound.

In Brussels, about 500 stranded passengers spent Christmas Eve at the airport after 10 inches of snow fell early Friday, the heaviest snowstorm in the Belgian capital since 1964.

In Germany, the situation in the skies and on the rails improved on Saturday, after Duesseldorf airport was closed for several hours on Friday and many trains saw delays.

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