Around 80 flights were cancelled at Schiphol on Friday as snow and freezing conditions continued to disrupt air traffic.

The cancellations followed a difficult week in which hundreds of flights were scrapped, affecting an estimated 300,000 passengers. Weather conditions improved briefly on Thursday, allowing KLM to operate almost all of its scheduled flights.

KLM chief executive Marjan Rintel told a television talk show on Thursday evening the airline had been dealing with “exceptional” winter conditions and rejected suggestions that the chaos was solely the result of poor preparation.

She said KLM had enough staff available and stressed that safety had been the decisive factor in cancelling flights. “If we cannot guarantee that safely, then flights will not go,” she said.

Rintel acknowledged the impact on passengers and said the airline had underestimated how long the winter conditions would last.

“I understand the frustration. We need to do better than we have done so far,” Rintel said. “We see that people at Schiphol have a much greater need for information than what is shown in the app, sent by email or available on their phone.”

Rebooking

“The problem, of course, is that you have to rebook 300,000 people and 70% of flights have been cancelled because there is no capacity at the airport to operate them. That makes it very difficult to say: you’ll be flying tomorrow. Because by tomorrow, your flight will already have been cancelled again.”

She also said KLM had since arranged additional supplies of de-icing fluid after running short earlier in the week.

Pilot union VNV said policy choices by KLM management played a role in the scale of the problems. In a message to members, the union warned that the airline’s operation can “collapse like a house of cards” when relatively minor issues arise, the Telegraaf reported.

Both KLM and Schiphol have faced criticism in recent years over staffing levels following large-scale departures during the coronavirus crisis. The images of stranded and angry passengers earlier this week were widely shared internationally, further fuelling criticism of airport and airline leadership.

VNV president Ruud Stegers said shortages of technicians and drivers have existed for some time and called for a concrete recruitment and training plan.

The Telegraaf also reported that plans drawn up in 2021 to improve preparedness for snow were never followed through.

Schiphol also briefly came to a standstill on Thursday morning because of a power outage linked to work on expanding emergency power facilities. Similar problems occurred during winter conditions in 2021, the newspaper said.