Originally Posted by johan rebel

The aircraft scheduled to operate my flight from AMS this afternoon arrived at the gate 21 minutes late. As the scheduled turnaround time was an ample 65 minutes, there was enough slack to make up for the time lost. Sure enough, all pax were on board and the door closed before our STD.

Looking out the window, I was relieved to see that a deicing truck had already taken up position at our starboard wingtip. A second truck and the deicing supervisor were parked at the next gate, where a flight was also boarding.

For some minutes nothing happened, then our truck backed away and joined the other one. At that moment the captain appeared in the aisle and announced that:

- we would have to be deiced.

- that this would take place at the central deicing facility.

- that there was a queue.

- that we would have to wait almost two hours before we could push back.

- that it would then take another half hour or so before we could take off.

- that he would be coming down the aisle to answer questions.

I had several of those:

Q: Why had the deicing truck left us?

A: It had been decided that all KL aircraft would use the central deicing facility.

Q: Why?

A: Deicing at the gate is bad for the environment, as the runoff cannot be properly dealt with.

Q: Were we going to taxi all the way around the terminal, across the A4 freeway to the J-apron to get deiced, and then all the way back again to one of the two departure runways, 18L or 24?

A: Yes.

The captain then turned to speak to the pax across the aisle, and I turned to look out the window. To my utter amazement, the KL 738 at the next gate was being deiced!

This plane got the full treatment. First the entire fuselage from nose to tail was washed down with copious amounts of a salmon-pink liquid. Then the wings as well as the horizontal and vertical stabilizers were given the same treatment. Finally, all the flight control surfaces were doused with a second, green-tinted liquid. I drew the captain's attention to this spectacle, which contradicted everything I had just been told. He professed his surprise, and had no explanation.

Having walked up and down the aisle, the captain retreated to the cockpit, and the FAs served us drinks and almonds.

And then we waited.

In the meantime, the aircraft at the next gate pushed back and taxied to the departure runway. The deicing trucks parked at the gate and the crews took a break. While they were munching on their snacks, any number of freshly deiced KL aircraft taxied past to the runway, their vertical stabilizers displaying a light-green sheen.

After ten minutes or so, snack break over, one of the deicing trucks suddenly drove up and parked right at the nose of our aircraft, followed by the deicing supervisor. The latter got out and plugged into the aircraft comms. The second truck now also pitched up and parked outside my window. About five minutes of feverish consultation now followed. The crews were constantly on the radio and their cell phones, and the two in the truck outside my window were engaged in an animated discussion, repeatedly pointing at various parts of the plane.

Then, all of a sudden, the purser announced that we would be deiced here and now, and push back in ten minutes.

What followed was a very perfunctory treatment, at least when compared to the aircraft that had just been deiced at the adjacent gate. Our fuselage was not washed down at all. Only the wings and stabilizers were sprayed, and only once, with the salmon-pink liquid. That done, we pushed back 44 minutes late, and took off 12 minutes later.

Last week I departed from CPH. We pushed back, taxied two minutes to a deicing station, where the waiting time was zero. Soon enough we were on our way to the runway, and in the air a few minutes later.

The conclusion?

Deicing at AMS sucks bigtime!

Johan