The Dutch airline blocked passengers from boarding at least 20 flights late on Saturday afternoon because of overcrowding at its home base and hub airport.
After thousands of passengers were left stranded in airports across Europe, the cost of compensation, hotel costs and other welfare needs could be millions of Euros.
The airline was already preparing for a busy weekend, but Saturday proved to be even more difficult than they had anticipated.
Schiphol airport suddenly and unexpectedly announced it had to carry out urgent repairs on one of its runways due to bad weather. The rate at which aircraft could take-off and land had to be limited in order to have an effect on passenger movements in the airport terminal.
As a result of unfavorable winds and runway maintenance, the runway capacity at Schiphol has been reduced.
Today has been another difficult day for our passengers and crew.
In order to avoid a potentially dangerous overcrowding situation, the airline stopped bringing passengers from European destinations to the airport.
There were no passengers on the flights back to Amsterdam from European destinations. It was decided that this would allow it to operate as normal on Sunday.
The weather would be calmer in order to get as many passengers away as possible.
Due to staff shortages, the airport is struggling to handle passenger numbers. Passengers were told to leave their luggage at home and travel with as little luggage as possible in order to make the security screening process quicker.
Mateusz Maszczynski As an international flight attendant, Maszczynski worked at the most prominent airline in the Middle East and has been flying for a well-known European airline. He is an expert in passenger experience and human-centered stories. Some of the biggest names in journalism rely on Matt's industry insights, analysis and news coverage often.
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