Heavy snow blanketing northern Europe has caused many flight cancellations and delays at Schiphol airport in the Netherlands and Brussels airport. About 400 flights were cancelled at Schiphol-one of Europe's biggest airports – and about 200 in Brussels. Travellers have been advised to check flight updates at home, rather than set off for the airport in bad weather. <br/><br/>In Germany, the heavy snow has caused many car crashes and traffic jams, as well as train delays. More than 300 flights were cancelled on Sunday at Frankfurt airport, the busiest in Germany. <br/><br/>The Dutch airport at Eindhoven was temporarily closed because of the snow, and many Dutch schools remained shut. Conditions improved later at Brussels airport, where planes were able to take off from one de-iced runway. But Brussels Airlines scrapped all its flights.<br/><br/>In France 32 regions were put on an emergency "orange alert" footing, as a storm nicknamed "Ana" battered the Atlantic coast, with winds gusting as high as 150 kilometre per hour. There were also avalanche warnings in some French Alpine ski resorts. Snow also spread southwards to Italy, causing some travel disruption in northern regions.