Thousands of passengers were left stranded at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport when the refuelling systems failed, with at least 70 planes grounded and more than 310 flights cancelled completely.
A total of 20,000 to 30,000 passengers were affected before flights were eventually restarted late on Wednesday evening, although disruptions continued well into Thursday.
“Planes at Schiphol cannot be refuelled right now,” said an airport statement on Wednesday evening. “Aircraft Fuel Supply, a third-party company that controls aircraft fuel supply, currently has a fault in their system. As a result, your flights may be delayed or cancelled by your airline.”
Aircraft Fuel Supply, who supplied the fuel system to Schiphol, denied that the failure of the fuelling facilities was due to the heatwave affecting much of Europe, according to reports by Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant.
This week was scheduled to be one of the busiest of the year for the airport, with around 225,000 passengers set to pass through during the holiday season.
“Many passengers have to find new flights, which is kind of a puzzle,” a Schiphol spokesman said on Thursday. “People are slowly getting on their way, but it is still very crowded at the airport.”
