The Independent’s travel correspondent Simon Calder reports:
Nearly 700 more flights have been cancelled on Wednesday at Amsterdam Schiphol airport, where snow, ice and high winds have wrecked schedules – especially for the Dutch airline KLM – for the past six days. On Wednesday, more than 100 links with the UK have been grounded.
Daniel Gustafsson of the flight-tracking website Flightradar24 says: “While Schiphol certainly can operate during winter weather, the airport’s de-icing infrastructure obviously isn’t designed to handle a barrage of snow for multiple days in a row.”
He warns of a “critical shortage” of de-icing fluid “that threatens to halt operations entirely”.
Mr Gustafsson writes: “Even a thin layer of ice on a wing can significantly affect lift which is why all critical surfaces of an aircraft must be completely free of snow and ice before takeoff. KLM operates a fleet of 25 de-icing trucks at Schiphol and is responsible for de-icing not only its own fleet but most aircraft at the airport. KLM’s de-icing teams have been using approximately 85,000 liters of fluid per day since Friday. This is extraordinary, leading to supplies depleting faster than they have been replenished.”
There is also a strictly finite time between when the aircraft is sprayed and take-off. “This window is referred to as holdover time,” he writes. “If an aircraft can’t depart within this crucial time window it must return for re-treatment.”
He adds that the potential “network domino effect” of a snarl-up at Amsterdam has led some airlines to cancel flights rather than risking an aircraft being stuck at Schiphol.
स्रोत: Independent Co Uk
