Schiphol back to normal after massive refueling issues

The situation at Schiphol is back to normal after an aircraft refueling problem on Wednesday caused hundreds of flights to be canceled or delayed on Wednesday and Thursday. The delays and long queues at transfer desks and ticket counters decreased to manageable levels throughout Thursday, and Schiphol expects that most affected travelers were rebooked by their airlines by the end of the day, the airport said on Twitter on Thursday evening.

Due to a system problem at Aircraft Fuel Supply, a third party company that controls aircraft fuel supply, planes at Schiphol could not be refueled between 1:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday. By the time the problem was resolved, over 250 flights had been canceled, and some 450 delayed for hours.

On Thursday a total of 100 flights were canceled by various airlines, Schiphol said. KLM canceled 61 flights.

Tens of thousands of travelers were affected, according to NU.nl. Many had to spend Wednesday night on camp cots in the airport, because hotels in the area were fully booked. As a precaution, Schiphol had 200 camp beds available on Thursday evening. A spokesperson told the newspaper that he expected them to be unnecessary.