European travel may ease today as airlines and rail operators work to return service to more- normal levels after snow and ice grounded jets and snarled train lines for four days. Deutsche Lufthansa AG expects “almost regular” operations within Germany and across Europe as the weather improves, said a spokeswoman, Bettina Rittberger. London’s Heathrow Airport, Europe’s busiest, managed to get both runways open by late yesterday, and flights resumed at Paris’s two main airports. The approach of the Christmas holiday added to the volume of European travelers trying to move by air, rail and road as well as to their urgency. Thousands of airline and train passengers were marooned across Europe during a storm system that produced Britain’s worst early snowfall in 17 years. “We’re expecting a unique demand for tickets,” said Berthold Huber, chief of long-distance operations for German state-owned railway Deutsche Bahn AG. The railroad plans to add extra trains starting today to handle passenger loads inflated by the region’s flight cancellations, Huber said. The peak day for road travel will be tomorrow, according to the Automobile Association, Britain’s biggest car-rescue service. The company said Dec. 20 was the busiest day in its 105-year history, with more than 28,000 breakdowns. Skies are starting to clear over the U.K., with advisories for “heavy snow” due to lapse at 6 a.m. today for northwest England, 9 a.m. for Wales, and 2 p.m. for the East and West Midlands, according to the Met Office forecast. The risk of snow and ice is expected to continue this week amid freezing temperatures, it said. ‘Near-normal’ The U.K.’s East Coast Line said it expected “near-normal” service today, and French rail operations largely returned to normal yesterday as snowstorms eased. Dublin Airport may resume flight operations after 8 a.m. today, following an accumulation of more than 15 centimeters of snow yesterday, according to a statement on its website. While Paris’s Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports were open, flight delays remained possible, operator Aeroports de Paris said in an e-mailed statement. Heathrow, the world’s second-busiest airport after Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, operated with only one of its two runways until 5 p.m., forcing British Airways Plc to scrap 165 flights at its main hub, according to the carrier’s website. Even with both Heathrow runways open, British Airways said it’s working to a schedule based on guidance from airport owner BAA Ltd. that only a third of flights would be able to operate until 6 a.m. tomorrow. Passengers should check schedules before departing for the airport, the airline said, echoing an advisory issued by carriers across Europe. Delays and Cancellations BAA Chief Executive Office Colin Matthews said in an interview on Sky News that the company is “hoping” to run two- thirds of Heathrow’s full schedule today. “It’s important passengers understand that full services can’t be restored immediately,” he said to Sky News. Gatwick and Edinburgh airports said their runways are open and flights are operating, though there are continuing delays and cancellations. Eurostar Group Ltd. said in a statement on its website that it is planning to operate a “near normal” service today, while warning that passengers should only go to the station if they hold a valid ticket for travel. No Safari Howard Rubel, analyst with Jefferies & Co. in New York, had to scrap plans for a safari in Africa with his wife over the holiday after snow and ice forced cancellation of flight connections in Europe from New York’s Kennedy airport and New Jersey’s Newark. “I’ve become an airline route expert,” Rubel said after a 24-hour attempt to complete his trip as originally planned. He and his wife went home, checked weather reports and flew to Florida yesterday for a vacation of golf, tennis and spas instead of Tanzania’s wild animals. “You learn a lot about airline operations when you hang out at the counter for 12 hours,” Rubel said by telephone. “Airlines have shrunk capacity so much that it’s harder to get places now.” To contact the reporters on this story: Andreas Cremer in Berlin at acremer@bloomberg.net; Laurence Frost in Paris at lfrost4@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Colin Keatinge at ckeatinge@bloomberg.net; Kenneth Wong kwong11@bloomberg.net

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