FRANKFURT, Feb 9 — Around 150 flights to and from Frankfurt airport, Germany’s largest hub, were cancelled today as storm Sabine reached Europe’s largest economy, a spokeswoman for airport operator Fraport said.

The number represents around 13 per cent of the roughly 1,200 departures and arrivals planned in Frankfurt for the day, the spokeswoman said, adding cancellations would increase in the late afternoon when gale-force winds were expected to arrive in the city.

She said that around 130 scheduled flights tomorrow had already been cancelled, a tenth of the total. Travel was also disrupted in the Netherlands and Britain, where the storm has been named Ciara.

Lufthansa, the country’s largest carrier, said it would cancel short- and long-haul flights from Munich airport tomorrow until 1200 GMT and 1300 GMT, respectively.

Long-haul flights to Frankfurt are so far not expected to be affected, the airline said.

In a separate statement, Lufthansa’s budget unit Eurowings said it had suspended flight operations at the airports of Hamburg, Berlin, Hanover, Dortmund, Duesseldorf, Cologne and Stuttgart.

German railway operator Deutsche Bahn also warned of severe disruptions in the northern part of the country, saying that long-distance trains had stopped operating there. — Reuters