Haste makes waste: Schiphol asked airlines to cancel flights too quickly

Things are not looking good for Schiphol — and to make matters worse, it seems like they botched the current situation even more. 😬

To cope with the May break and summer crowds, Schiphol called for flights to be cancelled.

However, Frank Oostdam, chairman of the trade association of travel organizations ANVR, has now said that Schiphol was wrong to ask the airlines to cancel flights. 🛩

“The signs were there”

According to the ANVR, Schiphol should have anticipated the crowds sooner. Oostdam says there were signs of a busy summer period all the way back in January, says RTL Nieuws.

After two years of on-and-off lockdowns, the travel sector is eager to have customers again. Even more so, people are willing to spend money on long-missed travel plans.

Traveller’s doubt

However, the cancellation of flights at Schiphol is going to cause trouble for travel companies, Oostdam believes.

According to him, because Schiphol asked to cancel flights too hastily, travellers doubt whether they should book a holiday.

This has a knock-on effect for travel companies, as they can’t take full advantage of this travel boost due to passengers often missing their flights.

Travel companies will try to recover the damage caused by the problems at Schiphol. Despite the recent chaos, Oostdam has faith in Schiphol CEO Dick Benschop to solve the problems.

What do you think about the situation at Schiphol? Have you experienced it yourself recently? Tell us in the comments! 👇

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.

6 COMMENTS

  1. Was at Schiphol yesterday, I have zero confidence in management there. Flight initially delayed due to check in and security problems. Then they didn’t have ground crew to push us back. Flight cancelled after 6 hours due to crew timing out. After waiting an hour for buses to take us back to the gate, they admitted they didn’t have any and towed us to the gate. I took a train to Brussels so I can be sure I will leave and not have to deal with that nightmare.

  2. Really huge queues by the check in. Queues were even worse by the security. The airport needs to resolve the issue, taking into consideration the rights of travellers as well as the rights of the airport employees

  3. Yes slow service with staff who were generally clueless. As a seasoned traveller I knew more about how to get through the security line than they did. They were indecisive making people confused. Other staff were friendly and helpful. Flight delayed leaving me hours behind in schedule but that I managed OK. Would have bought more at the airport had I had time for a cup of coffee because of the security line wait.

  4. Arrived @6:15 AM and faced the longest lines I have ever been in. There were already lines outside for security but they must have been for other flights because it only took us 45minutes to get a boarding pass, and another 1:30 hour to go through security – all inside.
    The staff was very friendly but one could not even go to the restroom.

    I feel like we had the easy part of the day since we came more than three hours early. Once boarded on our flight to SF we were delayed by at least 30 minutes in order to remove the lugage of the passengers that did not make it through.

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