As announced a month ago, Siim Kallas, European Commission Vice President responsible for transport, met on 19 January with the CEOs of some major European airports in order to analyse the causes that led to air travel chaos at the end of 2010. Extreme weather conditions caused the partial or total closure of several airports and the cancellation of many flights, leaving thousands of passengers blocked in airports.

When by the end of 2010 thousands of passengers had to spend the night at many airports in Northern Europe, the European Commission described this situations as "unacceptable" and pledged to take action. As noted by Commissioner Kallas at his meeting with the presidents of some major European airports, meteorological phenomena such as volcanic ash are difficult to predict and control, but the cold and the winter snows are not uncommon in some parts of the Europeam Union and their effects can therefore be mitigated with the appropriate preparation.

The Commission intends to introduce minimum service and quality requirements for airports to be prepared in such situations for the benefit of passengers. These measures will be incorporated into the legislative initiative that the Commission intends to present this year.

Since air safety and the planning of emergency situations is essentially the responsibility of the air transport sector, the Commission has initiated a series of meetings with representatives of airports such as London, Frankfurt, Paris and Warsaw, among others, belonging to the Airports Council International.

Some proposals to improve preparedness and response for air traffic disruptions

• Contingency planning for snow at airports must be improved.
• Ensure better co-operation between all those involved in the air and on the ground.
• Ensure the proper functioning of the airline hubs. Given the knock on effects, airports overall must be integrated more strongly so they work as a network. They cannot work in isolation.
• Passenger information must be improved, with better and more timely information about delays and re-routing.