Europe's airlines suffer in snow, ice

LONDON (Reuters) - Snow and freezing temperatures delayed flights across northern Europe on Monday, frustrating travellers trying to get away for Christmas and putting pressure on airline shares.

British Airways said severe weather was continuing to cause significant disruption to its operations and further travel chaos was possible on forecasts of more snow.

Only one of two runways at London Heathrow, the world's busiest international airport, was operating after a snowstorm paralysed the airport over the weekend, stranding tens of thousands of passengers.

Air France said there were serious delays at the two main Parisian airports, Charles de Gaulle and Orly following a snowstorm on Monday morning.

In Germany, Lufthansa said it was sticking with a revised flight schedule issued over the weekend and that long-haul flights were taking place.

However, it told passengers to check whether their flights have been cancelled before going to the airport.

Shares in BA were down more than two percent by 1000 GMT, while Lufthansa was also down around two percent as the Arctic blast hampered operations in one of the busiest weeks of the year.

BA has had a tough year, with a series of strikes by cabin crew costing in 150 million pounds and the dispute unresolved.

Europe's airlines were also grounded in April when an ash cloud from a volcano in Iceland made it unsafe to fly. The closure of most of Europe's airspace cost airlines more than $1.7 billion in lost revenues.

Cargo operations have been hit at Charles De Gaulle with some night flights cancelled this week as trucks were unable to make it to airport, threatening disruption to some industries such as autos which rely on just-in-time inventory being delivered to keep plants running.

CHANGING PLANS

BA said it was aimiog to run as many flights as it could from Gatwick, south of London, and the smaller London City airport in the east of the city.

However, it advised customers who could change their plans to either cancel and get a full refund or reschedule for a later date in the next 12 months.

Analysts said BA would suffer additional costs and lost revenue from the disruption.

"The weather conditions clearly wouldn't have helped because Heathrow has been pretty much shut for the last two days and it's going to take a while before there's a return to normality," said Panmure Gordon analyst Gert Zonneveld, commenting on BA.

"You still have the potential disruption from the unions looking for fresh strike action," he added.

(Additional reporting by Julie Crust in London, Tim Hepher in Paris, Maria Sheahan in Frankfurt; writing by Keith Weir)