News of: Friday, April 16 2010,
There will be no air traffic today to and from Dutch airports, until further notice.
Yesterday evening from 7pm the government stopped all air traffic to and from the Netherlands.
The airspace above 10 countries in Europe is now closed, and some other countries have closed their airspace partially.
It is unknown at this point how long this will take, but we will post more information here as it becomes available.
UPDATE Friday 5pm: There will be no air traffic to or from Holland until at least Saturday, 6am.
UPDATE Friday 11pm: Many flights are cancelled until well in the afternoon on Saturday. Officially though, the Dutch airspace is still to remain closed until 6am, no further news has yet been issued. Several other countries keep their airspace closed, but the limitations for Scotland and Ireland have been lifted.
UPDATE Saturday 9am: The Dutch airspace will remain closed until at least 2pm. The vulcano in Iceland keeps producing ash, and the weather conditions are not good: the ash cloud keeps hanging above the European mainland.
About 1,500 people spent the night on Schiphol Amsterdam Airport.
The Dutch Railways experienced problems at the Central Station in Amsterdam. Waiting times increased to 3 hours, and the Railways decided to close the international ticket counter, because all trains were fully booked.
UPDATE Saturday 1pm: Eurocontrol expects the problems to continue for the next 24 hours. KLM has cancelled all its flights for today. Officially, the airspace is closed until 2pm, but it doesn't look like there will be any flights for the rest of today, on Dutch airports.
UPDATE Saturday 3pm: All airports in Holland are closed until at least 8pm. The volcano on Iceland appears to produce more ash clouds. The wind is still into the direction of the Netherlands.
UPDATE Saturday 11pm: The airports in Holland remain closed until at least 8am. Airports in other parts of Europe remain closed as well.
Experts on Iceland have said the volcano will keep erupting ash, for at least the next days, possibly even weeks or months.
KLM and Lufthansa have tested flying on lower altitudes, with success.
Schiphol Amsterdam Airport has started looking for alternative accommodation for stranded passengers who are needy, families with children and elderly people.
UPDATE Sunday 9am: The airports will remain closed until at least 2pm, and likely for the rest of the day.
Dutch people who live near Schiphol Airport have offered around a thousand beds for stranded passengers. The authorities had opened a special telephone number where people can offer accommodation. Hotels around Schiphol are mostly fully booked, and many people were still spending the night on the airport.
UPDATE Sunday 11pm: The airports will remain closed until at least Monday morning 8am.
Minister Eurlings has said he wants the rules to be applied with more lenience. Tests have shown that flights can be carried out without danger in large parts of the airspace in Europe. Tomorrow there is a conference of European traffic ministers on the issue.
UPDATE Monday 9am: The airports will remain closed until at least 2pm.
KLM has carried out a few flights (a flight without passengers to Bangkok, and a freight flight to the United Arab Emirates), and no problems have been reported. KLM says it is safe to fly above most of Europe, and wants to resume services as fast as possible.
More information:
http://www.schiphol.nl (the Amsterdam airport).
NS Hispeed (International trains).
http://www.ns.nl (Domestic trains).
