Moscow.- Moscow’s main airport, Sheremetyevo, suspended the reception of flights this Saturday due to the heaviest snowfall of the winter, which has buried the Russian capital under a thick layer of snow.
The airfield reported this morning in a statement to passengers and visitors about its “provisional closure”, although it is authorizing the takeoff of some flights.
The planes bound for that Moscow airport have had to land at other airports in the European part of Russia, where the weather conditions are also unpleasant.
Dozens of flights canceled
The main Russian airlines -Aeroflot, Rossiya and Poveda- have modified or canceled dozens of flights, with the corresponding inconveniences for passengers.
In turn, the press reported that several thousand passengers have been stranded since Friday afternoon at Sheremetyevo, as they are unable to collect their luggage after landing.
Passengers, including minors, have had to sleep on the floor, a situation that has been repeated in other cities such as Yekaterinburg, the capital of the Urals.
In some cases, the collapse forced passengers to remain inside the planes for several hours after landing.
Roads Cut
On some roads leading to Moscow, traffic also had to be suspended, forcing the police to evacuate drivers in buses to hotels in the area until the wind and snow storm subsides.
This Friday, a strong blizzard buried Moscow and other regions of the European part of the country under a white blanket, which in the capital exceeded 30 centimeters and in other cases reached 60 centimeters of snow.
The snow covers both the sidewalks and the roads, which, added to the lack of visibility, has turned traveling by car into an ordeal.
The Fobos center reported that Friday’s snowfall covered more than 40% of the monthly precipitation norm in Moscow, the maximum in the last 50 years.
Some 130,000 street cleaning workers and more than 15,000 snowplows are working hard to combat the aftermath of the snowfall, which began on Thursday to cover this city of 13 million inhabitants.
Russia is in the midst of the Christmas holidays – Orthodox Christmas was celebrated on January 7 – so Russians do not return to work until January 12.
