Video| Christmas travel hits misery button

Hundreds slept in airports as they waited for the cancelled flights to be rescheduled.

Travellers trying to leave or go to the UK have had to suffer another day of long queues and grim conditions at the airports as snow and ice blocked the runways. Heathrow Airport said it would continue to run only 30% of flights until 6am on Wednesday.

Germany’s main air hub, Frankfurt, was forced to cancel many flights after being hit by unexpected snowfall. German authorities tried to light up the atmosphere by bringing in four brightly coloured clowns at the airport in Frankfurt. Passengers were given camp-beds on which to sleep.

However, the situation at the UK airports was more grim, where passengers had to sleep on the floors. As more passengers turned up with their tickets at Heathrow airport, they were turned away from the already overcrowded hub. All short-haul flights were cancelled and only one runway was in operation for the few flights that took place. The chaos at Heathrow effected other international hubs, where stranded passengers began to accept the possibility of not being with their loved ones over the Christmas period.

Eurostar trains were also heavily affected by the weather, with passengers having to queue for more than seven hours to board a train at St Pancras. The company urged its passengers to rebook or get a refund for their tickets.