Berlin airport suspends flights for second day in a row due to icy conditions
Berlin Brandenburg Airport suspended flight operations on Friday morning due to deteriorating weather conditions. A statement on the airport's website said that take-offs and landings were currently impossible due to freezing rain and black ice, and that operations were expected to resume later, without specifying a time.
The problems have been ongoing for the second day in a row. On Thursday, the airport also cancelled dozens of flights due to freezing rain. An airport representative explained that de-icing aircraft takes up to an hour, which is more than twice as long as usual. As of Friday morning, delays and cancellations continued.
Berlin Brandenburg is Germany's third busiest airport after the hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. It is located in Schönefeld, south of Berlin, in the federal state of Brandenburg.
The German weather service warned of black ice and freezing rain in much of the north-east of the country, while forecasting a gradual improvement during the day with temperatures around 0 degrees. Amid the bad weather, police reported several accidents on the A10 motorway near Potsdam, injuring 19 people. Disruptions were also reported on the railway line between Berlin and Hamburg.
Germany is experiencing a prolonged cold spell from January to February. Snow has fallen in Berlin, and temperatures have dropped below minus 10 degrees, which has already led to transportation problems, particularly on the railways. At the same time, milder weather is expected in the south and west of the country, and temperatures along the Rhine could reach 10 degrees over the weekend.
