Snow and de-icing fluid shortage, Amsterdam goes KO: 1,200 flights canceled since Jan. 2, 600 today alone

It is an authentic flight carnage the one underway since Jan. 2 at Amsterdam's Schipol Airport, Europe's fifth busiest airport in terms of traffic. Causing the cancellation of thousands of flights are the weather conditions present in the Netherlands, which brought heavy snowfall, strong winds and temperatures well below freezing.

The situation, already serious, could worsen further in the coming hours because the airport is facing a significant reduction in anti-icing fluid supplies, what is used for de-icing operations in very cold weather or when there is snow on the fuselage and wing surfaces of aircraft.

According to the Reuters news agency, the Dutch airport operator has made a request to its German supplier for more de-icing fluid, but with weather conditions common at many central and northern European airports, it is unclear if and when these increased supplies will be able to arrive at Schipol.

Hardest hit by the adverse weather conditions is, of course, the flag carrier KLM, which, according to data from the Flightradar24 platform, has canceled a whopping 2,400 flights since January 2, about the 50% of its operative. The situation has been getting worse by the day with 202 flights canceled on Jan. 2, 294 flights on Jan. 3, 398 flights on Jan. 4, 463 flights on Jan. 5, and 417 flights on Jan. 6, but the record will be set today as the company announced the cancellation of as many as 600 flights, amounting to more than 90% of its daily operations.

The situation is, of course, affecting the Dutch carrier's connections to and from Italy. On Milan, all four flights to Linate have been canceled, as have the two to Turin, the three to Bologna and Venice, the four to Rome Fiumicino, and some cancellations have already been announced for tomorrow, January 8, as well.  Connections of other airlines connecting Italy and the Netherlands, such as ITA Airways, Ryanair, and easyjet, have also been impacted, so the advice is to check your flight operations in real time but, if possible, to avoid flying to Amsterdam, especially in view of an intercontinental continuation from Schipol.

The end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026 proved to be very problematic for the regularity of air transport worldwide: in late 2025 the east coast of the u.s. was hit by a wave of bad weather that forced the cancellation of thousands of flights; cancellations and delays were then experienced throughout the Caribbean region coinciding with and following the u.s.-led military operation in venezuela.

And last Jan. 4, a major failure of radio communication systems plagued air traffic centers in Greece, effectively isolating the country by air for 24 hours, but severely affecting the punctuality of flights between continental Europe, the Middle East, Egypt and the Red Sea.