Storm forces Istanbul flight cancellations

Turkish authorities Monday cancelled tens of domestic and international flights in Istanbul Airport due to snow storms in northern and centeral Turkey for the second day running. Turkish Airlines, the national carrier, said in a statement it cancelled 35 domestic flights and other international flights due to bad weather. It added that also cancelled 50 domestic and international flights for Tuesday because of non-stop heavy snow fall on Istanbul. Some of the flights were diverted to smaller airports. Flights of British Airways and Dutch KLM were diverted to Izmir airport, western Turkey, said Istanbul Airport authorities. Central and northern Turkey have been devastating with snow storms, causing temperature to drop to minus 25 celcius, with forecast that snow would continue to fall heavily.