Already 200 Schiphol flights cancelled tomorrow; 700 scrapped today
Airlines operating at Schiphol Airport pre-emptively cancelled nearly 200 flights on Tuesday as airlines continue to struggle with the snowy, icy weather that descended on the Amsterdam region amid the aftermath of Storm Anna in northern Europe. Airlines have spent several consecutive days cancelling hundreds of flights in and out of the European Union’s second largest airport by passenger volume.
The problems were expected to continue on Tuesday. Some 82 scheduled departures were already scrapped, according to the airport’s website. These were mostly set to be operated by KLM, which cancelled 56 of its morning flights alone.
Another 115 arriving flights were also cancelled for Tuesday. Delays were already announced on nine other inbound flights. Flight movements were expected to continue running at a reduced throughout late Monday afternoon, possibly until the end of operations late in the evening, according to European air traffic center Eurocontrol. This was even after Schiphol put a ground stop into effect that lasted for several late morning and early afternoon hours.
At Schiphol Airport, the number of canceled flights was approaching 500 at around 11:00 a.m. Earlier Monday, Eindhoven Airport saw disruptions to its flight schedule, with one departure and one arrival cancelled, the airport reported. In addition to the cancellations, departures experienced delays on 11 flights, while five incoming flights were also delayed.
Over the course of Monday, other airports in the region shared information about their diversion capabilities to help relieve pressure at Schiphol. The airports in Brussels, Oostende-Brugges, Cologne-Bonn, Dusseldorf, and Eindhoven were among those contacted.
“It can become treacherously slippery in places,” warned the Dutch meteorological center KNMI in its weather report for Tuesday. Sleet and rain were expected in the west and north, including Schiphol and Rotterdam. The Hague Airport regions are expected to experience sleet and rain, while the east and southeast are likely to experience fog, a situation that has previously caused problems for Eindhoven Airport. “There will be a few wintry showers, mainly in the north,” on Tuesday afternoon, which could include freezing precipitation. The weather will turn into “a few wintry showers” with stronger winds at the coast.
