One of the biggest snowstorms in three decades hit London last week, as well as several airports in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland, creating chaos for tens of thousands of holiday travellers.
Even Frankfurt, Germany - no stranger to snow - cancelled 300 flights on Tuesday of this week after 40 cm of snow fell on the region.
The repercussions for airline travel are being felt globally, including in Whistler.
The delays at London's Heathrow Airport started on Friday, Dec. 10. Some travellers have been delayed for a week or more as airlines scramble to handle the backlog of travellers. As late as Wednesday, Dec. 22, the airport was still operating on a reduced flight schedule.
Officials at Heathrow warned travellers to contact emergency numbers and visit websites before arriving at the airport to avoid having thousands of travellers camped out in airport waiting areas.
Some of those stranded travellers were en route to Whistler to celebrate the holidays.
"We've lost, I would say, close to 100 room nights so far," said Roger Soane, the general manager of the Fairmont Chateau Whistler. "Some have had to cancel, but many have extended. There's one family that has been coming here for years for the holidays from the U.K. They normally would have arrived on the Saturday (Dec. 18) and now they're flying in on Dec. 26 and staying a little later so they'll still get two weeks. That's typical of what we're seeing."
Soane was encouraged by the news on Tuesday that both Air Canada and British Airways had resumed flights, although some passengers will ultimately be delayed seven days or more. However, he's also concerned by news that some people who had flights cancelled this week will not be able to get onto flights until after the New Year.
Soane says the hotel is busy but not 100 per cent sold out for the holidays or the busy week after Christmas. However, all of the family units and suites are sold out, and calls continue to come in for rooms.
He also confirmed that the Fairmont regularly hosts travellers from the U.K. over the holidays, and said that they are in daily contact with tour operators on the status of their guests.
Soane pointed out that this is the second time this year that air traffic from Europe has been thrown into chaos. In May, a volcano in Iceland erupted and blanketed Western Europe in ash. The ash was determined to pose a risk to aircraft engines.
Local travel agents were not aware of any visitors that have been delayed by the snow, but said they know of several residents who are trying to fly to Europe for the holidays or return to Canada that are being delayed.
"We've had a couple of people that have been stranded over there," said Tia Morrison of Uniglobe Travel. "A lot have been rerouted or flown out of different destinations like Amsterdam, Frankfurt, or other airports that are open. It's generally people trying to get home for Christmas."
Jenny Revesz at Personal Travel Management said: "With London closed it does affect flights from other areas as well, and so we're seeing delay issues where everybody is being bumped back - like on Air Canada.
"The weather back east isn't helping either."
Neither travel agent is aware of any British guests currently in Whistler who are having trouble getting home for the holidays.
For their part, Tourism Whistler doesn't know yet what the impact will be for travellers. Whistler.com, the reservations agency owned by the Resort Municipality of Whistler and Tourism Whistler, typically serves the regional and North American market. Most U.K. travellers book through tour operators, with the largest being Crystal Holidays, Ski Independence and Inghams Travel.
"We have been in contact with tour operators and understand that there have been some cancellations, but also a number of people that have delayed their arrival date," said Shawna Lang, senior manager of Leisure Sales for Tourism Whistler.
"Flights have restarted at Heathrow today (Wednesday), and some people who were supposed to arrive today or yesterday have been pushed back to arrive on Dec. 25 or Dec. 26."
Tourism Whistler is encouraged by indications that most travellers are choosing to delay their holidays rather than cancel.
The U.K. market can account for as much as 10 per cent of Whistler's destination business, although numbers were down last year with the resort blocked off for the month of February - half-term break for U.K. schools. The market is expected to recover this year now that February is back in play, but isn't expected to reach peak levels as a result of the soft economy.
Lang says Christmas is typically the busiest for U.K. destination travel, followed by the half-term break in February and by Easter.
"British travellers are the most resilient from our perspective," said Lang. "We hear on CBC this morning that people can't understand how 20 centimetres of snow can close an airport and cause so much havoc, but this is the second or third Christmas in a row where there's been some sort of challenge at Heathrow or other U.K. airports.
"But they are the most resilient travellers, they're going to travel and this sort of thing doesn't stop them."
Lang says it's impossible to forecast how strong the U.K. market will be this year, given the global trend toward last-minute bookings.
"It's hard to guess where we're going to go with the forecast," she said. "Typically five or 10 years ago we would have all of our U.K. business on the books right now, but they're going to keep booking through the end of December and January."
