Remember that action plan Schiphol presented in the hope that the summer months would be less chaotic than May? Yeah, it’s not really working.
After vaguely warning that dozens of flights could be cancelled this summer, the Dutch airport has now given us concrete figures and, spoiler, you might want to take the train this summer.
In a press conference, the directors of Schiphol namely said that a maximum of 67,500 travellers are allowed to depart in July. In August, this number will climb up to 72,500 travellers. 🙃
The measures are still caused by staff shortages at the security lines, reports the NOS.
Responsibility falls on airlines and travel providers
The capacity cuts will affect an average of 13,500 departing passengers every single day in July. This means that not just dozens but several hundreds of flights could be cancelled on the busiest vacation days.
To mitigate the chaos, Schiphol is encouraging travellers to look for outbound flights from regional airports. ✈️
READ MORE | Chaos at Schiphol: why the biggest Dutch airport is struggling so much
Meanwhile, airlines and travel providers are responsible for moving or permanently cancelling the scrapped routes and rebooking passengers. Fun.
Resultingly, Corendon is moving 150 flights from Schiphol to Rotterdam airport, while Transavia is limiting its sales. Both Transavia and KLM, however, hold Schiphol responsible for the summer’s inevitable financial losses.
Safety first
At the press conference, the directors highlighted that the measures, first of all, revolved around safety. CEO Dick Benschop said that “the demand we expect this summer is higher than the capacity that we could achieve with all the measures taken earlier.”
“It is not responsible to go into the summer at random. We do not want to take any risks. We are responsible for the safety of our passengers and employees,” he continued.
How are you coping with the chaos at Schiphol? Tell us in the comments below!
Moving flights from Schiphol airport to Rotterdam airport is unacceptable. We had chosen our flight according to the Schiphol location. We could have chosen a flight from Dusseldorf airport if the location had not been our criteria. We already bought our flight tickets but departure airport will change. What if arrival airport does not change? My car will stay as parked in Rotterdam airport but I will arrive back to Schiphol.
Only in the NL, instead of firing this clown and bring someone that can cope with this new reality and think about creative solution and outside of the box, we are stuck with not knowing if we can fly until the last moment…
Innovation and thinking outside of the box is not a dutch perk… Shame…
Our flight is in august 😔😔hope it won’t be affected
I’m so glad I booked trains to Spain for this summer
They better not mess with my vacation in septemper i booked 8 months ago or a lawsuit will be the result there is no excuse for low staf this the should have knowed, bad playing and leadership
Do you know if and how this is impacting arrivals?