Tehran - The chaos at Tehran's Imam Khomeini International
Airport entered its third day Tuesday with all flights cancelled
because of renewed heavy snowfall and a frozen runway.
After snow cancelled all flights Sunday, the airport announced
they would resume Monday morning, but only one local airliner could
take off to Dubai, and all other flights were put on hold.
Emirates Airlines asked its passengers on a flight to Dubai to
board Monday afternoon, but after almost 10 hours on the stationary
plane, all passengers disembarked. The flight was eventually
cancelled and passengers asked to return to Tehran.
The new airport, which became fully operational in November, is
located about 50 kilometres south of the Iranian capital, and
passengers can only return to the city by airport taxis.
Large numbers of passengers and frozen roads meant that demand far
exceeded the supply of taxis, and the few taxis that were driving the
route charged up to three times the normal fare.
Germany's Hansa Rostock football team, which was in Tehran for a
friendly game on Saturday, also remained stuck at the airport, unable
to return to Dubai, where the team had been preparing for the second
half of the season. The team members had to return to the city until
further notice.
It was for the first time in Iran that civil air transportation
has been disrupted for three consecutive days.
Passengers blamed the disruptions on the new airport, which they
said lacks necessary facilities.
They claimed such a situation never occurred in the previous
Mehrabad airport in western Tehran.
Internal flights going to Mehrabad airport were resumed Monday,
but it was unclear whether they would also be effected on Tuesday
after the renewed snowfall.
Heavy snowfall and temperatures below minus 10 degrees caused
chaos across Tehran, forcing the government to close all its offices
for the next two days.
The cold season in Tehran usually starts in mid-December and lasts
until the end of February, but the meteorological office has called
the current conditions 'unprecedented.'
© 2008 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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