News / Freighters grounded at Schiphol as airport 'fails to cope' with snow

© Jaromír Chalabala

Freighters at snow-hit Schiphol Airport will have no de-icing fluid until tomorrow at the earliest, causing major delays for cargo.  

Passenger flights have been given priority, and cargo players are blaming the airport’s lack of preparedness for poor weather. 

So far there have been some 2,000 flight cancellations, in part because KLM ran out of de-icer, and had to source some 100,000 litres from Germany. 

A spokesperson for KLM Cargo said: “To give an indication of the scale: the amount of de-icing fluid used per day during the peak of the winter conditions was equivalent to what would normally be consumed over an entire year. This unprecedented usage did indeed lead to temporary shortages, but these have since been resolved and stocks have been replenished.” 

However, the shortage has meant that only aircraft operating passenger flights will be de-iced. 

“There is currently sufficient de-icing fluid available for the entire passenger fleet. However, there is a temporary embargo in place on the de-icing of cargo aircraft, applicable to all carriers. At this stage, this embargo is expected to remain in effect until Saturday.” 

KLM Cargo has limited its services as a result, it told customers.  

The spokesperson added: “To mitigate the impact on our cargo operations as effectively as possible under these circumstances, we are forced to implement the following temporary restrictive measures: reduced free sales for flights departing from Amsterdam on all KL and DL services up to and including Sunday, 11 January; no acceptance of special products (allocations and free sales) on all KL and DL services to and from Amsterdam for COL, CRT, ERT, AVI, AVF, AVX, HEG, VAL, VUN, HUM, HRC, and LHO, up to and including Sunday; for Martinair freighter flights, schedule changes and delays are to be expected; and live shipments for the Animal Hotel (AVI, AVF, AVX, HEG) cannot be accepted.” 

The carrier advised customers to visit its disruption page for further information. 

The spokesperson told The Loadstar: “Some flights were indeed diverted during the period of disruption; however, these flights ultimately returned to Schiphol once conditions allowed. All shipments that were already in our network have been, or will be, recovered as soon as possible on the first available alternative flights. 

“Based on current weather forecasts, we expect operations to gradually return to normal from early next week, with backlogs continuing to be worked through in the meantime.” 

Industry observers, however, were disappointed that snow had caused operational problems. 

While congratulating stakeholders that worked hard to resolve the problem, Maarten van As, MD of Air Cargo Netherlands (ACN), told The Loadstar: “Despite the heavy snow and slippery conditions, we saw no problems on the land side side of the chain that couldn’t be overcome. Of course, volumes were much lower than usual due to the circumstances, but freight forwarders, truckers, handling agents, and airlines were able to respond to the situation.” 

But he added: “Airside at Schiphol, the situation was different. There too, many individual employees worked incredibly hard, but Schiphol as an organisation couldn’t cope with the weather conditions.  

“This was painful, especially since almost the exact same thing happened in February 2021. Back then, snow and wind caused the airport to be shut for a period, preventing aircraft from landing. Aircraft parking areas weren’t cleared of snow, and when they were, it was done so clumsily that ground handlers and fueling services couldn’t access the aircraft.” 

Mr van As added that ACN had raised the issue with the airport following the closure in 2021 and, as a result, the airport issued an evaluation of its preparedness for climate change to committee members.  

“One of the conclusions was that due to the changing climate, we can expect these kinds of extreme conditions more often, and we must be prepared for them,” said Mr van As. 

“After five years, the same thing is happening now. In addition, this time there were many uncertainties and ambiguities about de-icing.” 

Some airlines have been forced to divert, with Qatar Airlines Cargo, for example, switching two flights to Liege. Many others have cancelled freighter flights, including China Southern, EAT Leipzig, Air China, Saudia, Emirates, Turkish, and Martinair. 

Schiphol responded to a request for comment: “In the past days, exceptional weather conditions caused limited air traffic to and from Schiphol Airport, leading to delays and cancellations in flight schedules.

“This impacted about half of cargo flights, which were either cancelled or used alternative airports. Of flights that have diverted to surrounding airports, cargo is being transported to and from the Netherlands in alternative ways.

“As for de-icing, this is a ground-handling process and for this an airline enters a contract with the ground-handlers. So, these questions are best to ask to them.”