The homeless population has borne the brunt of the deaths, with dozens of transients freezing to death in unheated apartments, fire escapes or in makeshift street shelters.

Authorities on Sunday found two homeless people’s bodies in France who had likely frozen to death, bringing to at least 307 the number of cold-related deaths across Europe.

With temperatures plunging as low as minus 40 Celsius (minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit), the grim winter toll also rose in other countries including Italy, Poland and Ukraine, where another nine deaths brought that country’s total fatalities to 131 — most of them homeless people who perished on the streets since the freeze started nine days ago, Ukraine’s emergencies ministry said.

Some 1,800 people had been hospitalised, and 75,000 people had sought warmth and food in over 3,000 shelters across Ukraine.

The bitter cold front has engulfed much of Europe and even crossed the Mediterranean into north Africa, where as many as 16 people were killed on Algeria’s snow-slicked roads or in other weather-related accidents.

In Rome, Italy’s normally mild-weathered capital, the snow-covered city was virtually paralysed after black ice streaked the streets and snowed-in residents warned of food shortages.

As residents resorted to sawing through fallen trees blocking the roads themselves, many people said they had had no assistance from the authorities.

The Italian death toll reached 17 when three homeless people were found dead, while two men suffered heart attacks as they shovelled snow in the Abruzzo region and Campania regions.

London’s Heathrow Airport, the world’s busiest passenger air hub, cancelled half of the Sunday’s 1,300 flights after six centimetres (2.4 inches) covered the area. Heavy snow falls in other parts of Britain left motorway drivers stranded overnight.

The cold claimed eight new victims in Poland, bringing that country’s toll to 53, and in Serbia, which has recorded nine deaths, authorities declared states of emergency in 32 municipalities, mostly in the south and southwest.

Almost 70,000 people remained cut off in snowed-in Serbian villages, with police and military units providing basic necessities, said Predrag Maric, the police official in charge of Serbia’s emergency services.

In Romania, six new deaths brought the toll to 34.

Overnight temperatures in Finland plummeted to minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 32 degrees Fahrenheit), but did not deter many Helsinki voters from turning out to vote in a presidential election.

The cold spell is forecast to last until at least the middle of the week.

© 1994-2012 Agence France-Presse

Preliminary figures released by the AEA, which represents 35 carriers collectively operating more than 11,000 flights per day, said network airlines in all carried 363 million passengers.

“There is much to encourage us in the 2011 figures. In times of austerity and financial turmoil, European citizens continue to vote for air travel,” said AEA Secretary General Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus.

“Unfortunately we cannot, and do not, expect this buoyancy to last. Air freight — a key barometer for the industry — has been slowing since May and we began to see passenger traffic cool down in the final quarter of 2011.”

Fuel costs too remained high, he added.

© 1994-2012 Agence France-Presse

Two A340s will join the fleet specifically to add a capacity on routes to Asia.

No changes are planned for Bangkok, the airline’s oldest station in Asia dating back to charter flights in the 70s. Today, the airline operates twice daily services during the winter season, but scales back to a single daily service during the summer timetable.

Finnair will start a daily Helsinki-Singapore service 30 May using an Airbus A340-300 (49 business seats and 227, economy). Singapore was once an extension from Bangkok, but the carrier dropped the Bangkok-Singapore sector in 2007 due to aggressive competition from low-cost airlines.

The Singapore flight will predominantly cater to business travellers visiting ASEAN and connecting to services to Australia. In contrast, Bangkok enjoys a mix of leisure and business traffic, strong enough to sustain two daily services during the peak tourist season November through to March.

In June, Finnair will also increase flights to Hong Kong from seven to 12 a week.

Effective 1 January, Finnair lifted Osaka services from five to six a week, followed by Delhi, 6 January, up from six to daily and back in December, it increased Seoul up from three to six a week and Nagoya  from three to five.

From the summer schedule, starting 27 March, Finnair will fly daily to Seoul, Nagoya and Osaka. The airline also serves three other Asian cities Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo, all on a daily basis.

In addition, Finnair recently launched a Saver Promotion for business and economy class ex-Bangkok to its European destinations.

An economy class promotional fare is Bt16,500 per person. If two people travel together (GV2), the joint fare is Bt30,000. Business-class fare is Bt74,000 for one and Bt145,000 for two. These fares are exclusive of taxes and surcharges (around Bt10,000 depending on destinations).

The selling period will end 28 February, while travel is valid between 1 February and 20 June (ticket has one-month validity).

Inclusive of taxes and surcharges, a roundtrip economy class deal to London, via Bahrain, costs Bt29,335; Paris Bt26,230 and Frankfurt Bt27,495.

The sales period will run through to 28 February and passengers must commence the outbound journey by the same date. Tickets have two months validity after departure.  

The daily flight from Bangkok to Bahrain departs at 1940 and arrives in Bahrain at 2330. This allows passengers from Bangkok to connect to the European flights that depart late at night with roughly two and a half hours between flights.

On the return sector, passengers will face longer connecting delays of around seven hours as flights from European countries arrive in  Bahrain at around 1930, while the Bangkok-bound flight will depart at 0220.

Compared to other airlines’ regular economy restricted fares, Gulf Air’s promotional fares are relatively cheap, but the deals are only available on limited dates.

Looking at other Middle East carriers, Qatar Airways sells London from Bt38,380 while Paris, Bt35,650 and Frankfurt, Bt36,910.

Kuwait Airways has the best deal online for London at Bt36,750; Paris, Bt31,230 and Frankfurt, Bt34,160.

Emirates’ online quotations start at Bt40,750 to London; Bt38,015 to Paris and Bt39,270 to Frankfurt.

In the non-stop flight category, British Airways’ London deal is Bt35,095 while Thai Airways International sells at Bt46,300. Air France sells Paris from Bt40,15 while THAI sells at Bt41,525. Meanwhile, the best Lufthansa fare to Frankfurt is Bt35,670, and on THAI Bt42,785.

Gulf Air also has ” Fantastic Fares” to cities in the Middle East, available for online bookings until 27 February, but the outbound sector must commence by 28 February with one-month’s validity.

All-inclusive promotional fares are: Bt18,125 to Abu Dhabi; Bt17,905 to Muscat; Bt17,840 to Doha; Bt18,125 to Dubai; Bt17,840 to Kuwait and Bt19,485 to Damascus.

Above fares include taxes and surcharges and are subject to change due to currency fluctuation. They are available on certain dates.

Temperatures dropped to as low as minus 18 degrees Celsius (minus 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in some parts of Germany, while driving rain in Italy triggered the collapse of two Roman walls in Pompeii and flooding in Venice.

Thirteen people died of exposure in central Europe, including eight in Poland. Most were under the influence of alcohol, according to police.

Two people died in England in accidents blamed on the weather, one in a motorcycle crash and the other after falling into a freezing lake.

Albania meanwhile proclaimed a state of natural disaster in the north due to heavy floods, and more than 200 people were evacuated from the region near Shkodra as hundreds of houses filled with water.

Transport chaos hit the whole of the continent as the snow spread, and Britain — shivering in the earliest widespread snowfalls of winter since 1993 — was one of the countries worst affected.

London Gatwick Airport, Europe’s eighth busiest passenger air hub, said it would remain shut until at least 1000 GMT Thursday as staff worked to clear the runways.

Edinburgh Airport, Scotland’s busiest, was also shut and delays were reported at airports in Glasgow and Aberdeen in Scotland, Newcastle in northeast England and Jersey in the Channel Islands.

British forecasters said Wednesday had been the coldest 1 December on record, with no hope of a let-up in the coming days.

Eurostar, which operates high-speed passenger trains linking London with Paris and Brussels, said it would cancel half of its services Thursday, following delays of up to 90 minutes and some cancellations on Wednesday.

Heavy snowfall also forced the closure of Geneva International Airport where 100 stranded passengers had to spend the night in the terminal. Two hundred others were sheltered by the civil protection unit as hotels were fully booked.

Switzerland’s Basel airport shut its runway in order to clear off 10 cm (four inches) of snow that accumulated in just over two hours. The country’s biggest airport Zurich was still operating, although 70 flights had been cancelled due to bad weather conditions in other airports.

At Germany’s Frankfurt airport, Europe’s third busiest, 153 flights were cancelled, all due to flights not arriving from elsewhere.

And 250 flights were cancelled at Munich airport, nearly a quarter of the daily total, mostly due to snow preventing takeoffs.

In the Paris area, French aviation authorities asked airlines to cancel 25% of their flights at Roissy airport and 10% at Orly because of expected snowfalls. But there were no flight cancellations Wednesday.

Snow and freezing temperatures however forced authorities to cancel 116 flights from Lyon airport.

In Britain about one-third of all rail services either suffered delays or cancellations at midday Wednesday, and more than 1,500 schools were closed.

There were widespread problems on the roads across Europe, including in France where 17,200 trucks had to abandon their journeys nationwide.

Part of the motorway orbiting London was shut and there were severe delays on north-south routes, while serious accidents were reported on the main road between Prague and the eastern Czech city of Brno.

In Italy snowfalls disrupted traffic in city centres and on motorways in the northern Lombardy and Piedmont regions, and in Spain school transport services were disrupted by heavy snow in northern and central regions.

Bild newspaper said it was the coldest 1 December in several hundred years, with temperatures as low as minus 18 degrees Celsius in some places.

Eight people have died of exposure in Poland, three in the Czech Republic and two in Lithuania, officials said Wednesday.

In Italy two ancient Roman walls fell down in the archaeological site of Pompeii due to persistent heavy rains that wore away the ancient mortar between the stones.

© 1994-2010 Agence France-Presse

According to TCEB president, Akapol Sorasuchart, there are five packages in ‘Believe in Thailand’ featuring cultural performances, corporate social responsibility (CSR), green meetings, team-building and golf and spa activities.

EIBTM (Exhibition for the Incentive Business Travel and Meetings) 2010 should attract 7,000 trade visitors interested in sourcing new events business.

Mr Akapol added that the European market should deliver around 84,940 MICE tourists to Thailand and earn the country about Bt6,400 million.

The carrier reported net earnings of Euro 290 million ( US$392 million) in the June to September period after a loss of Euro 147 million a year earlier.

At the operating level, reflecting core activities, the company earned Euro 576 million against a loss of Euro 47 million in the same period of 2009.

Sales rose 18.6% to Euro 6.64 billion.

Air France-KLM took a heavy hit last year in the global recession, which cut deeply into passenger and freight traffic.

In response, the company undertook severe capacity cutbacks, restructured its freight business and carried out a cost-cutting campaign on short and medium-haul flights.

The company is now looking ahead to an operating profit of more than Euro 300 million in its financial year to March 2011.

For the full fiscal year 2009 Air France-KLM suffered an operating loss of Euro 1.28 billion.

© 1994-2010 Agence France-Presse

It is an extension of the airlines’ code-share agreement signed in 2009.  To introduce it, FFP members of both airlines can earn double points on travel undertaken by 31 December.

Bangkok Airways’ FlyerBonus members can now earn and redeem points when travelling with Air Berlin on qualifying fares and vice versa for Air Berlin’s Top Bonus members.

It is understood that an Air Berlin FFP member could earn enough points on a round trip Bangkok-Europe service to gain an economy class ticket on a Bangkok Airways domestic route.

For the members who travel on Bangkok Airways or Air Berlin flight by 31 December they get double points.

Frequent flyer programme members of both airlines must quote their membership number when making a reservation and present their membership card at check-in.

In October 2009, Bangkok Airways and Air Berlin jointly announced a code-share agreement for flights to Samui, Phuket and Chiang Mai. This allows Air Berlin customers to book flights through to the domestic Thailand destination on flights with double designators.

Air Berlin’s member of the board of directors, Matthias von Randow said: “With these new direct flights Air Berlin is strengthening its position as a major carrier at the airport Berlin-Tegel. Air Berlin’s second direct service between Berlin and the US will begin in the summer 2011 with flights to New York.

“This allows Air Berlin to establish a base in Berlin for international flights ahead of joining the Oneworld alliance in 2012.”

The new flight to Florida departs from Berlin’s Tegel airport at 1100 on Monday and Thursday and lands at Miami International Airport at 1545. The return flight leaves at 1730 and lands at Berlin at 0900.

This Miami service is not a feasible option for passengers from Bangkok. Air Berlin operates just three weekly non-stop services to Berlin from Bangkok on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.

The Sunday departure from Bangkok would be the best choice, but it would still incur an overnight in Berlin as the Bangkok-Berlin flight lands in Berlin at 1700 to connect  to a Miami flight at 1100 on the following day.

From May 2011 Air Berlin will also operate four direct flights a week from Berlin to New York’s JFK airport.

“Europe’s air traffic management is a mess and it needs to get better. The need for Europe to achieve the efficiencies of the Single European Sky was evident for the whole world during April’s volcanic ash shutdown,” said IATA’s Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani. “And passengers suffer daily from air traffic control delays or circuitous flight routings.”

IATA stated that the average daily delay in September was 2.4 minutes per flight, higher than the Eurocontrol target of one minute delay during the summer. July was the worst month with an average delay of 5.3 minutes, five times the target and nearly double that of July 2009.

“The SES objective is a 50% cut in air traffic management costs by 2020 and is critical for a competitive European air transport sector. It is very disappointing that the ANSPs are beginning to complain about initial targets which are simply to absorb the costs of growth with efficiency gains,” said Bisignani.

Besides cost efficiency, the SES also aims to increase airspace capacity 3-fold, improve the safety record by a factor of 10, and reduce the effects on the environment by 10%.

Europe’s airlines have been hit hard by successive crises over the last decade. It is the only region expected to be in the red in 2010 with a loss of US$1.3 billion. In the aftermath of April’s ash crisis, both the EU Transport Ministers as well as European Commission Vice President Siim Kallas committed to improve competitiveness with more efficient air traffic management infrastructure. The SES, fully implemented, is expected to bring cost benefits of EUR 5 billion annually.