Chaos at the airport: Schiphol pays compensation claims

The past two weekends have been anything but boring for Schiphol Airport and KLM. 🛫

Claims organisation Aviclaim received more than 1650 compensation requests for cancelled or delayed flights, totalling about €1.3 million, says the NOS.

The May holidays and staff shortages caused considerable chaos at Schiphol airport these last two weeks. Schiphol even asked travellers not to come to the airport and for airlines to cancel flights.

Missed or delayed flights

Founder of Aviclaim, Remco Kuliman, said the organisation received an enormous number of phone calls. Passengers specifically asked about what their compensation rights were.

For example, passengers who missed their flights due to long queues at the check-in are technically not entitled to refunds, says Kuliman. Only travellers whose flights have been cancelled or delayed for at least three hours can claim compensation.

Compensation and debts

The airlines are now demanding millions in compensation for the cancellations by Schiphol. In the meantime, the airport plans to limit fights during busy periods to prevent this from happening again.

On the other hand, The Netherlands’ own airline KLM recently repaid €311 million loaned by the state during the pandemic.

KLM CEO Pieter Elbers says they still owe €631 million, which they hope to repay later this year according to the NOS.

With flights back up again, KLM has made a profit for the third quarter in a row since the pandemic.

What do you think of the situation with Schiphol and KLM in recent weeks? Tell us in the comments!

Feature Image:Depositphotos
Katrien Nivera 🇵🇭
Katrien Nivera 🇵🇭
Third culture kid Katrien has been working as a writer and editor at DutchReview for over two years, originally moving to the Netherlands as a tween. Equipped with a Bachelor’s in communication and media and a Master’s in political communication, she’s here to stay for her passion for writing, whether it’s current Dutch affairs, the energy market, or universities. Just like the Dutch, Katrien lives by her agenda and enjoys the occasional frietje met mayo — she just wishes she could grow tall, too.

5 COMMENTS

  1. Why passengers who missed their flights due to long queues at the check-in are technically not entitled to refunds??? It is a bad management of crisis situation! I was in this situation on 28.04.2022… Please advice how I could recover amount on new ticket and hotel night paiment…

    • We are in the same situation. We were handed a sheet from a KLM employee telling us they would cover our expenses and I submitted a claim and everything was denied.

    • I was in this situation on 2/7/22.
      Schiphol is clearly incapable of handling the volume of passengers, but they continue to do so. Nobody to help. Airloprt and airline staff have just withfrawn from the whole situation.
      passengers who wait in the ridiculously long queue OUTSIDE THE AIRPORT BUILDING ST SCHIPHOL should be compensyaref.
      missed my flight, connecting flight which had to be changed at my expenses and two nights in hotel at my expenses.
      Baggage arrived 5 days later; had to buy new clothes, toiletries etc.

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