Trains have taken the strain as stranded air passengers opted to travel overland instead European airports are struggling to help thousands of passengers stranded after severe wintry weather paralysed parts of Europe's transport network.
Freezing temperatures, snow and ice has grounded flights, trapping travellers returning home for Christmas.
Airport operators defended their handling of the crisis amid criticism from the European Commission.
Officials at the worst-affected airport, London's Heathrow, rebuffed offers to bring in the UK Army to help.
Since Saturday, when 12.7cm (five inches) of snow fell in just one hour, Heathrow airport - the world's busiest - has cancelled hundreds of flights.
The airport said it planned to operate two-thirds of its scheduled flights on Wednesday.
Delays at Heathrow also had a knock-on effect on other northern European airports.
In Ireland, the Dublin Airport Authority said the airport would be closed until at least 0800GMT on Wednesday, the The Irish Times reports.
'Unacceptable disruption'
In Germany, Frankfurt airport cancelled 550 of almost 1,300 flights on Tuesday because of the bad weather.
Tents have been erected at Heathrow airport to accommodate waiting passengers Air France said that some 5,000 people spent the night at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport on Tuesday - 4,000 of whom were trying to fly into London, according to Le Monde.
While in Sweden, Scandinavian airline SAS said flights to London's Heathrow were the most problematic.
"It is the absolute worst there," SAS spokeswoman Elisabeth Manzi told The Local.
"From Frankfurt and Paris, things are running smoothly and we are getting passengers out. In London, we currently have about 5,000 to 6,000 SAS customers."
Many passengers sought to travel by rail instead of plane, causing Eurostar to recommend that passengers trying to leave from London should cancel their tickets and stay at home.
But rail expert Christian Wolmar said the real problem was not bad weather but bad management.
"Eurostar ought to be ashamed of themselves," he told Associated Press.
"It would seem possible to put on extra trains, but th
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