snow-covered bicycles
© AFP Photo DDP / Joerg Koch Germany Out
Air services across Europe were disrupted today, as snow and bad weather led to flight cancelations and delays at airports including in Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Edinburgh.

In Frankfurt, 266 flights were canceled as of 2:45 p.m., airport owner Fraport AG said in an e-mailed statement. Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe's second-largest carrier, said Fraport had made "insufficient de-icing and handling capacities" available. Fraport spokesman Thomas Uber said "clumpy, coagulated" snow meant de-icing took longer than usual.

Cold temperatures and snow are forecast for Germany over the next five days, according to AccuWeather.Com, with temperatures in Munich expected to dip as low as minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) today. The earliest widespread snowfall of a British winter since 1993 has led to "icy roads and heavy snow" across most parts of the country, the Met Office said on its website.

"The winter weather we will experience this week will be such as many people, especially in eastern Germany, have never experienced in their lives," German weather service Wetter24.de said on its website.

Munich airport, Germany's second-biggest, yesterday saw 170 flight cancellations out of more than 1,100 scheduled flights, according to spokesman Florian Steuer. Services were "back to normal" today, he said.

London, Edinburgh

Some flights were stopped at London City Airport today, according to its website. London Gatwick Airport said it canceled 10 out of 575 scheduled flights. Edinburgh Airport was open after shutting in the morning "due to heavy snowfall," BAA Airports Ltd. said on its website. Glasgow Airport opened after shutting yesterday. London Stansted Airport is open although some flights may be affected by the weather. Some flights were also stopped out of Amsterdam airport.

Flight services in Europe have also been disrupted as flight attendants in Finland started an open-ended strike in a work-rules dispute. Finnair Oyj said it will cancel more than half its flights and SAS Group's Blue1 unit will cut at least 20 percent of services after the Finnish Cabin Crew Union stopped work today.

Weather disruption could cost the U.K. economy 1.2 billion pounds ($1.9 billion) a day, as supply services are affected and shopping disrupted in the run-in to Christmas, according to RSA Insurance Group Plc, the U.K.'s biggest non-life insurer by market value.

"If the weather continues for the next two weeks, as the Met Office is predicting, this figure will quickly spiral to more than 12 billion pounds, dwarfing the hit we took in January," RSA Director David Greaves said in an e-mailed statement today.

'Pretty Cold'

"The origins of the winds are from Russia and Siberia, so it's pretty cold," said Met Office spokesman Barry Gromett. "In many areas today and tomorrow, it will be blanketed in snow."

The weather service said icy roads may cause difficulties especially where melted snow re-freezes.

"Yesterday was our busiest November day on record, we were peaking at about 2,200 calls per hour and now it's down a little to 2,000," said John Franklin, a spokesman for Aviva Plc's RAC Plc auto-service. "We're getting more call-outs from Wales, the north-west, London, Kent and the south-east as we see more snow creeping southwards."

Schools in Edinburgh closed for a second day, according to the municipality's website. Melting snow in the city center caused some buses to skid and struggle up hills.

Energy Demand

U.K. power for next-day delivery rose to its highest level in 22 months yesterday as natural gas costs increased and the weather conditions boosted demand.

National Grid Plc, the U.K.'s gas and power network manager, said demand rose 5 percent to 435 million cubic meters in the 24 hours through 6 a.m., 90 million more than normal for the time of year. That's the highest gas usage since Jan. 13.

Natural gas is used to heat about 80 percent of homes and businesses and to generate about half of the country's electricity. The U.K. is Europe's biggest gas user.

Heavy snowfall in central France cut power to as many as 25,000 households yesterday as Electricite de France SA, Europe's biggest operator of nuclear reactors, asked customers to limit use amid a cold snap expected to last a week.

Power demand in France, Europe's second biggest power market, will peak today at 90,600 megawatts at 7 p.m. Paris time. It reached a record 93,080 megawatts in February this year.