Schiphol woes to continue into Thursday as refuelling restarts; Thousands stuck at airport
Thousands of passengers were left with few options at Schiphol Airport as hundreds of inbound and outbound flights were canceled or faced hours-long delays. "The situation is not expected to improve until tomorrow morning," said Eurocontrol on Wednesday just before 4:30 p.m. and again at about 8 p.m.
Eventually the third-party refueling system at the heart of the airport's difficult Wednesday was restarted, but it was likely to only be brought back online in stages. "Aircraft Fuel Supply’s system that controls the supply of aircraft fuel is currently starting up cautiously and gradually," the airport tweeted out just before 9:30 p.m.
Within 11 minutes, refueled aircraft were taking off, according to NU.nl. The airport planned to use two runways overnight to get the hundreds of delayed departures into the air as quickly as possible.
"Currently the aircraft fuel supply system has restarted and planes are being refuelled right now. We regret any inconvenience for travellers and airlines," Schiphol said on its website soon after more flights began to depart.
No planes had been refueled on Wednesday since about 1 p.m. It began affecting flights less than 90 minutes later. As the gates filled up with airplanes unable to depart, the airport began running out of options to accommodate more aircraft. Passengers were still stuck inside seventy planes parked at the Polderbaan runway and at other locations. An airport spokesperson said those planes had functional air conditioning, keeping the planes cool as outside air temperatures rose well above 39 degrees.
Available hotel rooms in the Amsterdam area were also becoming scarcer and scarcer, according to available options on hotel booking sites Kayak.com, Booking.com, and Hotels.com. Airport workers were expected to set up cots in the departure halls as the crowds began to depart on their flights, or as passengers left the airport for local homes and hotels.
Een team van het Rode Kruis helpt reizigers op #Schiphol. De vrijwilligers vangen gestrande reizigers op en helpen hen indien nodig met praktische problemen. @Schiphol heeft veldbedden geregeld voor passagiers die vanavond niet meer kunnen vliegen. pic.twitter.com/fCV1Ce9bQO
— Rode Kruis (@RodeKruis) July 24, 2019
"If you cannot depart tonight, you can contact your airline for overnight stay options. As a precautionary measure, we will provide camp beds for passengers who may be left behind at the airport," Schiphol said on social media.
The refueling issue led to over 250 canceled flights, with about 450 delayed, as of 9 p.m. Nearly 174 hours of accumulated flight delays had built up at the airport by 9:15 p.m., reported Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation.
Earlier in the day, Schiphol said that problem's with the airport's refueling system meant that only planes which had enough fuel to fly to its next destination would be allowed to take off from the airport. Though Schiphol has not identified the root cause of the problem publicly, Eurocontrol said the issues at the airport are "electrical problems in the fueling system." Schiphol indicated the problem was with its third-party partner, Aircraft Fuel Supply, and not the airport itself.
"The airport is not currently able to accept additional aircraft that do not require refueling," Eurocontrol said