The Dutch airline KLM indicated that it was facing a shortage of de-icing fluid at the airport.Amsterdam Schiphol, while a persistent cold wave has been disrupting air traffic in the Netherlands for several days.
According to the company, its 25 de-icing trucks are continuously deployed at its main hub, consuming approximately 85,000 liters per day of a hot water and glycol mixture used to remove snow and ice from aircraft before takeoff. Since Friday, de-icing operations have been running 24 hours a day, with daily deliveries of the product.
KLM explains that extreme weather conditions, combined with supply delays from suppliers, have significantly reduced available stocks. The airline emphasizes that this shortage is currently affecting a large part of Europe. Employees have been dispatched to Germany to try to secure additional volumes of de-icing fluid.
The Dutch subsidiary of the group Air France-KLM specifies that it cannot, at this stage, indicate how long the remaining stocks will allow to maintain operations if the restocking does not happen quickly, while assuring that it is doing everything possible to avoid a wider interruption of flights.
For its part, Schiphol Airport claims to still have sufficient reserves of another type of liquid, used mainly for de-icing runways and ground infrastructure.
The airline has already cancelled at least 300 flights to and from Amsterdam, where it is the dominant operator. Weather forecasts predict continued winter conditions in the coming days, with more snowfall and strong winds expected, raising the risk of further disruptions.
