Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport was temporarily closed early on Sunday as a large power outage hit all operations at one of Europe’s busiest airports.
Authorities closed off roads to Schiphol and stopped train traffic to the airport around 0300 GMT to “ensure the safety of travellers”, the airport said, as check-in procedures had become impossible and the airport’s main halls overflowed with waiting passengers.
Roads to the airport were reopend around 0430 GMT, as power was restored, but the disruption of services would have “severe consequences for air traffic during the day”, airport spokesman Jacco Bartels said.
This would also affect flights to Amsterdam at other airports, as Schiphol would only be able to handle ten arriving planes per hour on Sunday morning as priority was given to the large number of flights waiting to leave the airport, Bartels said.
Schiphol is the third-busiest airport in Europe in numbers of travellers, after London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle.
