Europe’s Worst Airport? Bit of Snow Brings Chaos to Amsterdam
Amsterdam Airport has cancelled hundreds of flights due to a small amount of snow, with further winter chaos expected.
With other airports in the region coping just fine with the same amount of snowfall, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is once again showing why it is often cited as one of the worst airports in Europe.
Snow chaos at Amsterdam Airport
Flight operations at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (IATA code: AMS) are in an absolute meltdown these days.
Yesterday, Monday 5 January, more than 500 flights were cancelled at Amsterdam Airport due to light snowfall, with a further 400 flights already cancelled today as a precaution, and the number likely to rise.
With more snow expected tomorrow, it appears that the winter chaos at Amsterdam Airport will continue throughout the week.
KLM, the national airline of the Netherlands, has been the hardest hit by the winter chaos at Amsterdam Airport, with thousands of passengers missing their connecting flights or having their entire itinerary cancelled, leaving them stranded in the Dutch capital or at dozens of other airports across the world.
Other regional airports
Bizarrely, the bit of snow in the Netherlands has only seemed to impact flight operations at Amsterdam Airport, with other regional airports operating normally.
Yesterday, flights at Eindhoven Airport (IATA code: EIN) and Maastricht Airport (IATA code: MST) operated without any real issues.
Although there were some minor delays this morning at Eindhoven Airport due to fog, the airport continues to have no cancellations, a stark contrast to Amsterdam.
Indeed, some flights that were originally bound for Amsterdam were yesterday diverted to other regional airports, including a Surinam Airways flight from Paramaribo, operated by an Eastern Airways Boeing 777, which landed at Maastricht.
De-icing
One of the main reasons why Amsterdam Airport was unable to cope with the snow, while other airports in the Netherlands or elsewhere in Europe were, is the limited availability of de-icing facilities.
According to Dutch Air Traffic Control, Amsterdam Airport has only four de-icing platforms, which is an extremely low number for such a major global hub.
To put this into perspective, Amsterdam Airport, which handled 66.8 million passengers in 2024, has the same number of de-icing platforms as Vilnius Airport, which saw only 4.8 million passengers last year.
The inconvenient location of the de-icing platforms at Amsterdam Airport – at a remote position far from the runways and gates – creates further hold-ups and bottlenecks, which have a snowball effect on flight operations later in the day, with initially small delays growing into major delays and eventually widespread cancellations.
KLM also to blame?
While other airports across Europe – even those in countries that do not usually experience snowfall – have invested in proper de-icing facilities, Amsterdam Airport has chosen not to do so.
Airport operations consultant Etienne van Zuijlen told the Dutch daily newspaper Telegraaf that Amsterdam Airport and KLM had taken a calculated risk by not investing in proper de-icing facilities, fully aware that it could lead to chaos on snowy days.
Van Zuijlen, who has previous experience working at Amsterdam Airport, said: “The current de-icing capacity is calculated for light winter conditions.
“For the current winter weather, Amsterdam Airport would require eight de-icing platforms.”
Van Zuijlen explicitly blamed KLM as well for the current snow chaos at Amsterdam Airport.
He said: “KLM did not want to do this [doubling the de-icing capacity] for only two snow days a year. They took a calculated business risk.”
Wider problems
Amsterdam Airport has made the news not only for its poor winter management but also for a host of other issues in recent years.
In 2022, Amsterdam Airport CEO Dick Benschop was forced to resign following flight chaos, which included queues at security control stretching to the airport access road, with thousands of passengers missing their flights as a result.
At the time, the chairman of the airport’s supervisory board, Jaap Winter, said the airport was facing “ongoing bad news” and that it “must return” to providing passengers and airlines with a “quality” service.
Government policy
While in the 1980s and 1990s Amsterdam Schiphol Airport was lauded as one of the best airports in Europe, if not the world, for its ease of connections and smooth operations, it has recently fallen from grace.
Although poor management and outdated facilities are often cited by aviation experts as the cause of Amsterdam Airport’s ongoing problems, the Dutch government’s position on aviation is not helping either.
Recent governments in the Netherlands have required Amsterdam Airport to limit the number of flights it operates each year in order to reduce noise pollution and meet emission targets.
As a result, airlines such as KLM have been forced to scale back their flight schedules.
Flight taxes have been raised in an attempt to curb demand, but the revenue has not been used to improve airport facilities and has merely gone towards balancing the coffers of the treasury.
As a result, an increasing number of Dutch passengers are now flying from airports just across the border, such as Brussels or Dusseldorf, or from low-cost airports like Weeze and Charleroi, as not only are tickets cheaper due to lower taxes, but flight operations are usually much smoother.
Although KLM, Amsterdam Airport, and the Dutch government are quick to point fingers at each other, they are all partly responsible for the poor operational state of the Netherlands’ largest airport.
Conclusion
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is experiencing a major operational meltdown due to a light snowfall, with hundreds of flights cancelled.
Experts point the finger at both the management of Amsterdam Airport and KLM for failing to invest in adequate de-icing facilities to cope with winter weather.
However, the chaos at Amsterdam Airport is not just a winter problem, as the airport has faced many other issues in recent years, such as long queues at security, ageing facilities, and conflicts with the Dutch government over operations.
