An investigation into the discovery of cocaine hidden in a flower shipment in January led to a much larger drug bust in April. Ten people were taken into custody who worked for a logistics firm at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam after 160 kilograms of cocaine was found in another flower shipment.
It was not revealed when the arrests took place, but eight of the suspects were still in custody on Thursday.
The number of passengers traveling through the five Dutch airports keeps growing. In all of last year a total of 79.6 million people traveled through the airports in the Netherlands, 4.5 percent more than in 2017, Statistics Netherlands reported on Monday.
A mechanic was arrested at Maastricht Aachen Airport after being caught working on airplanes while drunk. The mechanic, a 40-year-old from Russia, was fined 2,300 euros, the Koninklijke Marechaussee said on Facebook.
The Rotterdam The Hague Airport is temporarily closed on Tuesday due to snowfall. The fire department is at the airport to clear snow off the runways, but did not have much success, a spokesperson said to RTV Rijnmond. The airport will assess the situation again after 2:00 p.m. and decide whether it can reopen.
At least one incoming flight was redirected to Schiphol due to the closure, according to the broadcaster. A few departing flights have been delayed
Ryanair cabin crew members in Belgium, Spain and Portugal will be striking next week Wednesday and Thursday. As a result, the Irish budget airline is canceling around 600 flights, including some to and from the Netherlands. Around 50 thousand passengers will be affected, Ryanair said.
The people living around six Dutch airports joined forces to fight against what they consider the undesirable growth of aviation in the Netherlands. On Tuesday they established a national residents' council on aviation called LBBL, ANP reports.
While busy Dutch airports like Schiphol, Eindhoven and Rotterdam are bursting at the seams, Groningen Airport Eelde can easily still handle thousands of more flights, according to Groningen Airport Eelde. The airport is therefore calling for a better and fairer distribution of air traffic in the country, NU.nl reports.
According to the airport, 1.7 million people live in the north of the Netherlands who annually account for 2.7 million passenger movements. Every day, five thousand people travel from the north to Schiphol to catch a flight.
Over 76.2 million people traveled through the five large airports in the Netherlands last year, Statistics Netherlands announced on Wednesday. That is a significant increase compared to 2016, when 70.3 million travelers arrived or departed at Schiphol, Eindhoven Airport, Rotterdam The Hague Airport, Groningen Airport Eelde and Maastricht Aachen Airport.
Four out of the five large airports handled more passengers in each quarter of 2017 than a year earlier. Only Maastricht Aachen saw a decline.
Schiphol announced that air traffic will gradually restart from around noon after all flights were suspended for 45 minutes due to hurricane strength winds.
Arrivals at Schiphol were expected to resume at 12:10 p.m., Eurocontrol said citing the strong winds. Arriving flights were put in a holding pattern beginning at 11:20 a.m. “Very high delays all afternoon”, the European air traffic control monitor stated.
Some 59 flights scheduled to depart on Wednesday from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport were cancelled with wind gusts expected to top 110 kilometers per hour that day. All departures were scheduled to take off between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m.
A further 59 arrivals, set to land on Wednesday between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. were also scrapped.
The airports in the Netherlands have a record summer behind them. In total 22.2 million people traveled through the Dutch airports in the third quarter, an increase of 6.8 percent compared to the summer of 2016, Statistics Netherlands reported on Wednesday.
The airports in the Netherlands are still struggling to catch up after heavy snowfall caused hundreds of flight cancellations and delays on Monday. Dozens of delays and cancellations have already been announced for Tuesday. Travelers are advised to check their flight status on the airport website, or with their airline, before leaving for the airport.
Meteorological institute KMNI issued a code red alert warning of extremely dangerous weather due to heavy snowfall in the Netherlands. The snow already resulted in the cancellation and delays of many flights at the Dutch airports. Passengers are advised to check their flight status before leaving for the airport, and take extra travel time to the airport into account.
Last year Dutch airports broke the 70 million mark in passengers transported for the first time, compared to 64.6 million passengers in 2015. Schiphol Airport accounted for the bulk of these passengers, according to figures Statistics Netherlands released on Tuesday.
