Snowfall paralyses German airports

Berlin's Tegel airport had to cancel most flights as it was hit by heavy snowfall

BERLIN, Germany -- Airports and motorways in northern Germany have been closed as a heavy snowstorm swept across the region.

Most flights at Berlin's Tegel and Tempelhof airports have been hit by the snow causing delays and cancellations.

Priority has been given to planes landing rather than departing, airport officials in the capital said.

The weather conditions forced German Finance Minister Hans Eichel to cancel a trip to Paris where he was supposed to meet his French counterpart.

Some flights were redirected to Schonenefeld airport, on the outskirts of Berlin, but officials said that continuous heavy snowfall would cause further delays.

Flights to and from Hamburg -- Germany's second largest city -- was also affected by the weather conditions as the runway was closed for an hour-and-a-half on Friday morning and numerous flights were cancelled, airport officials said.

A spokesman from Frankfurt airport -- with a daily traffic of about 1,300 departing and landing flights -- saw minor delays caused by snow and rain.

"There have been slight delays of between 15 minutes and an hour for quite a few flights but no cancellations," the spokesman told Reuters.

The snow also caused traffic jams and a number of minor collisions on roads and motorways in northern Germany, police said.