Schiphol Lost Hundreds of Flights to a Single Day of Wind

Storm Boelo did not stop at Britain. On Sunday, October 25, strong winds swept the Netherlands overnight and through the day, and Amsterdam Schiphol took a heavy hit. Xinhua, citing Flightradar24, reported 192 cancelled and 528 delayed flights at the airport by Sunday evening. The Dutch weather service KNMI had issued a yellow warning for coastal areas, with gusts of 75 to 90 kilometres per hour.

Counts varied through the day. AFP reported about 90 cancellations earlier on Sunday, taken from the airport’s departures page, mostly to European cities including Paris, Rome and Dublin, with dozens of arrivals also cancelled or delayed. Xinhua said cancellations were mainly to European destinations such as Paris, Manchester, Prague and Frankfurt. Schiphol said fewer flights than usual were expected to take off and land but gave no total.

The disruption had begun before the weekend. NL Times reported that KLM cancelled 42 flights across Friday and Saturday, 20 and 22 respectively, with Storm Austen due Friday and Boelo on Saturday. Away from the airport, a tree fell on a moving car in Amsterdam-Noord and injured the driver, while a house was damaged in Rijnsburg.

Winds were expected to ease in coastal provinces by Sunday evening, though strong gusts were forecast to continue in some northern areas overnight. Travelers who were rebooked onto Monday flights should still check their airline’s status page, because knock-on delays from a day this size can take a while to clear.

Sources: Xinhua, 24NewsHD (AFP)