More than 250 flights to and from Europe’s third-busiest airport have been cancelled because of the collapse of the fuel system.

The airport said the firm responsible, Aircraft Fuel Supply, had fixed the problem by 10pm – after a gap of around seven hours during which fuelling was at a standstill: “The aircraft fuel supply system is reactivated and planes are being refuelled right now.”

KLM, which has far more flights than any other airport at the Dutch airport, said: “ This has caused delays and a large number of the European flights as well as a limited number of intercontinental flights have been cancelled so far.

“The expectation is that tomorrow (25 July 2019) the operations can be restarted gradually. This means there may be a number of cancellations as well.”

The Independent has counted at least 180 KLM flights grounded up to 9pm local time.

Dozens of flights to and from the UK have been cancelled, including at least 40 departures on KLM to and from Heathrow, London City, Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh.

Mark Dearlove, who was booked on a Flybe flight to Southampton, said: “It is absolute chaos at Schiphol tonight. Airline staff have no clue what is going on: 300 people in line to rebook and get hotel sorted. Chaos.”

Another passenger, Melanie Beiler, tweeted: “They keep moving around planes to different gates, and apart from that, we get barely any information.”

A third, Dan Krikorian, pleaded via Twitter from his waiting aircraft: “Updates? Going to be 3 hours sitting on a plane. #trappedatschiphol.”

Short-haul aircraft can “tanker in” extra fuel, but long-haul services do not have this option.

Early evening departures to Toronto and New York are running at least three hours late.

KLM is offering passengers with tickets for Wednesday the chance to re-book free of charge for travel up to Tuesday 30 July.

On one of easyJet’s key routes, Gatwick to Amsterdam, “severe air-traffic control restrictions” caused by the fuelling problem were blamed for the cancellation of two return flights and a delay of six hours on another.

The airline also cancelled flights from Liverpool, Stansted and Luton to Amsterdam, as well as the return legs.

At least four British Airways’ flights to Amsterdam have been cancelled: one from each of Gatwick and Heathrow, and two from London City.

Flybe has cancelled two round-trips from Birmingham to Amsterdam, and one from Southampton.

Operations to and from Amsterdam on Thursday are already seriously disrupted because planes, pilots and passengers are out of position.

Dozens of KLM flights have been cancelled, including departures from Bristol, Durham Tees Valley and Heathrow to Amsterdam.