Strong winds still delaying arriving flights at Schiphol in aftermath of Storm Benjamin
Flights at Schiphol Airport are still experiencing delays on Friday morning due to a strong westerly wind in the aftermath of Storm Benjamin. The airport’s website lists 62 canceled and 175 delayed flights, with arrivals being particularly affected.
Starting at midnight, 15 departures and 47 arrivals have been canceled, and 59 departures and 116 arrivals are delayed. The delays range from a few minutes to a few hours. The majority of the flights affected are KLM flights between Schiphol and other European destinations.
During the storm on Thursday, around 200 flights were canceled and over 500 were delayed.
The strong winds mean that Schiphol can’t use all of its runways, resulting in fewer flights being able to land or take off simultaneously or in relatively close succession. This is causing delays, a Schiphol spokesperson told ANP. They expect to resume the normal flight schedule later on Friday.
Eindhoven Airport and Rotterdam The Hague Airport reported no significant delays or cancellations on Friday morning.
Storm Benjamin triggered a code orange strong winds warning in the western coastal provinces on Thursday, with the KNMI warning of gusts up to 120 kilometers. The code orange warning lapsed at around 3:00 a.m. on Friday. The storm caused a limited amount of damage, mainly in the form of fallen trees and damaged facades and roofs. No injuries were reported.
The KNMI warned that strong winds may still affect the coastal areas on Friday morning, especially in the northwest of the country. Eurocontrol also warned of “unsettled” weather affecting a large part of the continent.
Crosswinds were expected to hinder arriving flights at Schiphol Airport until at least noon, according to the European air traffic center Eurocontrol. “Moderate to high delays” were likely, with arrivals regulated due to strong winds.
Nasty weather “over much of Europe” is largely due to Storm Benjamin, which was situated near Denmark at about 8:40 a.m. This was still causing strong winds in most of Northern Europe, “particularly” impacting Amsterdam, Eurocontrol wrote in a bulletin.
