Travelers faced the prospect of spending Christmas Eve in Paris' main airport instead of at a feast-laden family table, after new snowfall and shortages of deicing fluid revived travel troubles across Europe. A scare about the security of a snow-laden terminal roof at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport made matters worse, with crowds asked to clear out of a section of Terminal 2E, according to AP. On the upside, the Paris airport got a holiday gift flown in from the United States on Friday _ a supply of precious deicing fluid to get planes off the snowy ground. Authorities had halved the numbers of takeoffs from Charles de Gaulle throughout the morning. Cancellations and delays continued in the afternoon, with flights reduced by 35 percent, and security officers brought in beds and blankets. Adding to the holiday drama, passengers at the airport were asked to leave a section of a major terminal for security reasons because of large amounts of snow on the roof, Bernard Cathelain, deputy director of the Paris airport authority ADP, told The Associated Press. He denied French media reports that the terminal, 2E, was evacuated, and said it was still operating. Passengers were asked to move to another part of the terminal, he said. A roof at terminal 2E collapsed in 2004, not long after the terminal was opened, killing four travelers and sending tons of glass, steel and concrete showering down. France's famed strikes played a role in Friday's travel troubles, too. A walkout at a French factory involved in the production of deicing fluid exacerbated shortages, forcing France to import the fluid, France's transport minister said. The airport authority said a shipment of deicing fluid was flown in from the United States on Friday morning. French civil aviation authorities said some 400 flights at Charles de Gaulle were canceled in the first wave Friday.
