Chaos in Amsterdam could drive more of us to fly direct

Simon Calder on how a week of snowy disruption at Schiphol airport exposed the weakness of the hub-and-spoke concept

- Simon Calder

"Persistent snow is expected tomorrow morning, combined with a strong southerly to southeasterly wind. KLM has therefore had to cancel 600 flights for Wednesday." That was the message on Tuesday night from the Dutch airline as it looked towards a sixth day of severe disruption at its home base, Amsterdam Schiphol.

“By making this decision now, we can provide our passengers with timely clarity and prevent last-minute flight cancellations, leaving travellers stranded at Schiphol,” said the airline.

More than 100 of those cancelled flights were due to link Amsterdam with the UK. In addition, British Airways cancelled a dozen trips to and from London City and Heathrow, while easyJet grounded six serving Luton and Manchester.

The league table of grounded Amsterdam-UK flights makes interesting reading. While Heathrow is well ahead with 24 services cancelled, other British airports are arguably worse affected. For a third straight day, Aberdeen, Inverness, Norwich, Teesside and Humberside lost their day’s connections to Schiphol.