Dozens of flight cancellations today; Some trains to start running this morning
Nearly a hundred flight cancellations were announced at Schiphol Airport on Saturday morning. The airport’s website showed that airlines scrapped 48 departures and 49 arrivals. There were also dozens of flights with various delays, as of 8:30 a.m.
During Storm Eunice, about 350 flights were cancelled at the largest airport in the Netherlands. "We are not flying at full capacity today, but we do not expect any further problems due to the weather," a Schiphol spokesperson told ANP.
KLM canceled about 200 flights on Friday, and 32 more on Saturday. "We understand that this is very annoying for passengers and are working hard to get them to their destination as quickly as possible," an airline spokesperson told the newswire.
There were no serious problems immediately reported by the country’s other airports. There were a handful of delays at Rotterdam The Hague Airport.
Regional trains restart on Saturday morning, NS in the afternoon
Meanwhile, railroad workers were busy early Saturday morning assessing the damage caused by the massive, hours-long storm. “The damage is extensive for most of the track. On some lines the recovery is going fast and trains can start running cautiously,” ProRail said in a statement.
NS announced it would restart trains over the course of Saturday afternoon, but warned that travel times might be longer and changes more frequent. Some NS trains could start as early as noon, but it was not clear which routes would begin first, NS said.
By about 8 a.m., ProRail indicated that trains operated by Arriva, Connexxion and Keolis could slowly start running again. Due to the rapidly changing situation, ProRail said people should check online travel planners shortly before they intend to start their journey.
ProRail began assessing the damage where the winds died down on Friday night, and it finally managed to begin inspections in the north of the country at about 3 a.m. on Saturday. There was widespread damage to the track and overhead power lines caused by trees which were toppled over and flying debris.
The infrastructure firm said that it essentially saw damage and technical issues everywhere it looked. “Our teams have cut trees at Breda, Europoort and Leiden, and elsewhere,” ProRail said.