diff --git a/.changes/next-release/bugfix-NettyNIOHTTPClient-6918c48.json b/.changes/next-release/bugfix-NettyNIOHTTPClient-6918c48.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..85893b87d20c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changes/next-release/bugfix-NettyNIOHTTPClient-6918c48.json
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+{
+    "type": "bugfix",
+    "category": "Netty NIO HTTP Client",
+    "contributor": "",
+    "description": "Fix `NettyNioAsyncHttpClient` errors when making requests in GraalVM native images, which can lead to timeout exceptions."
+}
diff --git a/http-clients/netty-nio-client/src/main/resources/META-INF/native-image/software.amazon.awssdk/netty-nio-client/native-image.properties b/http-clients/netty-nio-client/src/main/resources/META-INF/native-image/software.amazon.awssdk/netty-nio-client/native-image.properties
index 1c7d1b66ae00..1e43c501d3bb 100644
--- a/http-clients/netty-nio-client/src/main/resources/META-INF/native-image/software.amazon.awssdk/netty-nio-client/native-image.properties
+++ b/http-clients/netty-nio-client/src/main/resources/META-INF/native-image/software.amazon.awssdk/netty-nio-client/native-image.properties
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@
 # express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing
 # permissions and limitations under the License.
 #
+# Needed because native-maven-plugin's metadata repository excludes netty's own
+# '--initialize-at-build-time=io.netty', leaving jctools queues to fail at run time.
 Args=--allow-incomplete-classpath \
     --initialize-at-run-time=io.netty.internal.tcnative.SSL,\
       io.netty.internal.tcnative.CertificateVerifier,\
@@ -19,4 +21,5 @@ Args=--allow-incomplete-classpath \
       io.netty.internal.tcnative.SSLPrivateKeyMethod,\
       io.netty.handler.ssl.OpenSslPrivateKeyMethod,\
       io.netty.handler.ssl.ReferenceCountedOpenSslEngine,\
-      io.netty.handler.ssl.OpenSslAsyncPrivateKeyMethod
+      io.netty.handler.ssl.OpenSslAsyncPrivateKeyMethod \
+    --initialize-at-build-time=io.netty.util.internal.shaded.org.jctools