Heavy snowfall and high winds are continuing to cause travel misery for tens of thousands of passengers at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands, as severe disruption from the winter weather persists for the sixth consecutive day.
The situation became so bad on Tuesday that the Dutch flag carrier KLM warned that the airport was close to running dry of deicing fluid, while airport authorities have ordered airlines to cancel 70% of all flights to and from Schiphol on Wednesday.
600 flights cancelled and more expected as winter blast continues
Amsterdam Schiphol is facing an unprecedented blast of severe winter weather that has crippled the airport and left tens of thousands of passengers stranded for days on end.
Unfortunately, the heavy snowfall and high winds that have caused so much disruption at what is normally one of the busiest airports in the world don’t show any sign of letting up, and the disruption is only getting worse.
Having gone from cancelling around half of all flights to and from Schiphol on Monday and Tuesday, the airport authority has now ordered airlines to slash service by 70% on Wednesday.
That mandate has resulted in at least 600 cancellations, although the Royal Schiphol Group, which operates the airport, has warned that this number will rise during the course of the day.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has had its operation almost paralyzed by the winter weather, with thousands of flights now cancelled and severely delayed since January 2:
- January 2: Cancelled 207 flights and delayed 368 flights.
- January 3: Cancelled 278 flights and delayed 319 flights.
- January 4: Cancelled 386 flights and delayed 244 flights.
- January 5: Cancelled 435 flights and delayed 171 flights.
- January 6: Cancelled 400 flights and delayed 190 flights.
- January 7: Cancelled 429 flights and delayed 4 flights (preliminary figures).
Data supplied by Flight Aware.
KLM warns that it was about to run dry of deicing fluid
KLM is responsible for deicing most aircraft at Schiphol, and the airline operates a fleet of 25 deicing trucks, which have been operating around the clock since Friday.
With so many aircraft to deice, KLM says it has been getting through 85,000 liters of deicing fluid every day, and that has left the airport with a critical shortage of what is an absolutely vital element in operating an airport in freezing temperatures.
That shortage became so bad on Tuesday afternoon that KLM warned it was very close to running out of deicing fluid and was struggling to get replenishments from its supplier in Germany.
In the end, KLM ended up sending its own tankers to the supplier to beat delivery delays, although the airline cautioned that it was closely monitoring the situation.
Winter weather is also impacting Paris and Brussels
Heavy snowfall is sweeping across Northern Europe, and other airports are also now feeling the effects of the winter weather. Along with Amsterdam Schiphol, travellers are also being warned to expect significant disruption at Paris Charles de Gaulle, Paris Le Bourget, and Brussels.
In Nantes, the airport has been completely shut down until midday on Wednesday at the earliest due to snowfall.
Cold conditions, along with heavy snowfall, are expected over the coming days, and travellers are being warned to brace themselves for disruption to their journeys.
What help should passengers expect?
Europe has some of the most comprehensive passenger rights rules in the world, although when the disruption becomes this widespread, even these regulations can come under extreme strain.
In theory, airlines should provide passengers on flights that have been cancelled or delayed by more than three hours, the following assistance:
- Refreshments (normally in the form of meal vouchers)
- Hotel accommodation for overnight delays
- Transport to and from the hotel
- A free telephone call to contact loved ones
When so many passengers are affected, however, airline customer service desks and telephone lines quickly become overwhelmed, and prebooked hotel rooms that airlines have on standby for the occasional delay are quickly exhausted.
Airlines must instead focus on directly assisting the most vulnerable passengers while telling everyone else to pay for their own hotel rooms, taxis, and refreshments, and then claim these costs back at a later date.
As long as you can prove that your costs were ‘reasonable’, then airlines are legally obliged to reimburse you.
Europe’s so-called EC261 delayed passenger rights also give customers the right to claim monetary compensation in the event of a significant delay or last-minute cancellation. Airlines do not, however, have to pay this compensation if the delay or cancellation was due to an ‘extraordinary circumstance.’
While bad weather isn’t automatically considered an ‘extraordinary circumstance,’ there’s no doubt that airlines will argue that the severe winter weather currently affecting places like Amsterdam is exempt from compensation claims.
