Stormy weather in Central Europe and runway restrictions caused by heavy snowfall severely congested operations at Helsinki Airport on Tuesday evening. An overtime working ban by the Finnish aviation union also contributed partly to the situation. Finnair cancelled over 60 flights, while many more were delayed. Around 6,000 Finnair passengers were stranded in Helsinki and at other European airports.
The company says that the delivery of an estimated 2,000 pieces of delayed luggage will take several days.
With the exception of a few cancellations on Wednesday morning, scheduled flights began returning to normal.
High winds and snow
Because of high winds and heavy snowfall, Helsinki-Vantaa Airport had only one runway in use for over seven hours, starting at noon on Tuesday. 151 flights were delayed and airlines cancelled 83 departures.
Finnair reports that most domestic and European traffic will continue to experience delays Wednesday and complete recovery traffic is expected on Thursday. Long haul traffic is expected to recover for most part on Thursday.
