The snowfall in France and the Netherlands on 5th January interrupted air, road, and rail traffic, with hundreds of flights being cancelled in the national capitals, trains in Amsterdam had stalled, and buses in Paris were cancelled.

Amsterdam Schiphol airport, which is among the busiest airports in Europe, cancelled approximately 700 flights on Monday after the airport shut down all incoming flights until 1200 GMT because of the snow, a spokesperson said. Planes were diverted to other airports in the process.

“There are long queues here,” a traveller who was stranded at Schiphol told Dutch media station AD. “It is not that clear where exactly anything is going to happen.”

In the meantime, the civil aviation authority of France requested the carriers to cut back on takeoffs and landings by 15 percent or about 30 flights at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and 40 flights at Paris-Orly, as of the evening, Aeroports de Paris had to say.

1,000 KM OF TRAFFIC JAMS IN PARIS

Transport minister Philippe Tabarot encouraged travellers to check whether their flight was operating in advance before they start leaving their house and taking public transport to the airport.

He also decreed speed limits on roads in all of Ile-de-France, which surrounds Paris, to 80 km (50 miles) per hour. State-owned RATP, which runs the public transport in Paris, reported that it cancelled dozens of bus lines. There was a normal train running on the underground and suburban trains.

Traffic jams peaked at one point of about 1,000 km on the roads of Ile-de-France, the site of the prefecture of the region, which was more than the usual peaks of 300 km.

ALSTOM TRAINS Crippled in Amsterdam

Dutch rail company NS reported that no trains were running in the area around Amsterdam, and transport was massively impacted in most areas. NS also stated that it would use a winter scheme on Tuesday, where it would use fewer trains.

Trains that were slated to go to the Netherlands were canceled, and the international train operator Eurostar announced that trains would go as far as Brussels, in the adjacent Belgium instead. On Monday, the Eurostar train services that were supposed to leave the Netherlands were cancelled.

The roads were also hit by a number of delays and accidents due to ice and snow, despite the fact that authorities recommended people to remain at home as much as possible.

Delays and disruptions will continue in the next few days due to the current winter weather.