Amsterdam Airport Schiphol places new cap on number of travellers, making KLM furious

Schiphol places a cap on the number of travellers for a more stable airport process

Schiphol will place a cap on the number of travellers that can depart from the airport, after consulting with airlines, which are not happy about it. Airlines need longer-term planning. The airport expects to do so until the end of March. There will be a time towards the end of the year when the airport will look at whether more might be possible from the end of January. Schiphol has made this choice to provide travellers with a reliable travel experience, and predictability and stability for airlines. At the same time, the airport is hard at work to improving capacity at security.

“Keeping to a maximum number of travellers is vital. We want to ensure the safety of employees and travellers, in addition to providing a more reliable airport process. This obviously affects travellers and airlines, which we of course consider very unfortunate. Together with the security companies and unions, we are working hard on making structural improvements – a daunting task in a very tight labour market. It’s something to be realistic about. That’s why it will only become clear later this year whether more is possible after January,” said Hanne Buis, COO at Royal Schiphol Group.

Together with unions and security companies, Schiphol is working on structural solutions to the staff shortage. Efforts include better rosters, improved restrooms and better wages for security company employees.

Based on the capacity made available by Schiphol, the independent slot coordinator (ACNL) will consult with all airlines to arrive at the required capacity reduction.

KLM: “New Schiphol restrictions offer no perspective”

Schiphol has announced that it will again significantly limit the local number of departing passengers this winter. This is enough for KLM.

While airlines were still confronted with an 18% reduction in the number of local departing passengers in the period up to and including the end of October, a reduction of up to 22% applies for the winter season (up to and including March).

This creates a hopeless situation, which has been going on since May. The solution to the ongoing problems at Schiphol is sought time and again from airlines such as KLM and thus from our customers. Constantly limiting the number of locally boarding passengers damages the confidence of our customers who can and want to travel with us again after the severe COVID crisis.

“The situation at Schiphol has been asking too much of our customers and our colleagues for too long. KLM has previously said that limiting the number of passengers cannot be a long-term measure, but it now seems that way. With the new restrictions for the winter, Schiphol does not offer us any perspective,” said KLM CEO Marjan Rintel.

The service provided by Schiphol and therefore for KLM customers has been substandard for too long. This harms KLM and is in stark contrast to the increase in costs for using Schiphol, rising to 37 percent in the coming years. Moreover, this situation is throwing away a carefully built reputation and the damage for KLM now amounts to more than 100 million euros.

Impact on customers

Due to these new measures for the winter, KLM has no choice but to further restrict ticket sales on the Dutch market for the coming period. This should ensure that it limits as many additional cancellations as possible for its customers, while at the same time staying within Schiphol’s borders for safe flight operations.

KLM is doing everything it can to allow customers who have already booked to depart. Within the limitations, colleagues work hard on this every day.