As mentioned earlier about the occurring of fog, in this case the temperature and the dew point temperature are equal causing the thick fog. Amsterdam Schiphol Airport on an average day is taking care of 68 landing and departing flights an hour. When there are poor weather conditions the airport has some‘’ special’’ procedures. The most important thing we have to make sure of is safety. To ensure safety the airport has to take in to consideration that the distance between aircraft arriving and departing are greater than normal. The so-called“ low visibility procedures” dictate that planes landing at an airport must be separated by six miles( 9660m), rather than the usual three( 4830m) The mass of electronic equipment in modern airliners makes it a simple process for pilots to land them in the dark, low cloud and equally, in the thickest of fog. But once on the runway, pilots rely heavily on the view from their plane windscreen to avoid collisions with an other aircraft or airport vehicles as they taxi to the stand. They need extra space when they are coming into approach and when they are taxiing around the airport. As u can imagine this has a major influence on the airports departure and arriving schedule. Departing aircrafts will be given a slot depending on the weather and airport capacity. Demand is managed by giving the aircraft a slot stating when it can take-off – the‘ Calculated Time of Take Off’ or CTOT. Normally, the aircraft should take-off within 15 minutes of the time stated in its flight plan but, if a slot is necessary, then this window is shrunk – to within five minutes before the CTOT or within ten minutes after the CTOT. If the aircraft can’ t achieve this take-off time, then the pilot has to re-apply for a slot.

For example: The aircraft has a slot due to fog and should depart at 09:00Z. The CTOT given by EUROCONTROL is 10:14Z. Delay code 87 is active due to Airport limitations.