LONDON – The Netherlands’ largest airport, Schiphol will place a cap on the number of travellers that will depart out of the airport as Schiphol’s management team received complaints from airlines about the high level of customer dissatisfaction. 

Airport Struggles Post-COVID

After the airport team consulted airline representatives, the airlines would prefer the airport to cap a departure number as airlines need longer-term planning in crowd control.

This latest round of cap is expected to take place until the end of March 2023. From now until the end of the year (2022), Schiphol’s management will take the time to look at and review the problems surrounding the crowds at the airport. Schiphol Airport thus has prioritized providing travellers with a reliable travel experience and more stability for airlines.

The airport is also working hard to improve capacity at security chokepoints. 

Hanne Buis, COO at Royal Schiphol Group stated: “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 apparent later this year whether more is possible after January.”

Schiphol Group is working closely with the trade union, numerous security companies, and consultancies as the largest airport in The Netherlands is working hard on structural solutions and short-term plans to relieve staff shortages, which induces bad publicity for the airport.

Schiphol’s efforts include better human resource planning, better staff rosters, better communication between management and employees, improved bathrooms and resting facilities for workings, and better and fairer wages for employees.

Schiphol Airport is working hard to keep up with the demand from the general public. The airport’s planning capability is based on ACNL, an independent slot coordinator that will consult airlines to cope with the capacity reduction. 

Since Covid-19 airports in the European Union have been severely affected by the supply chain crisis, the rise in costs and personnel shortages are fueling the crisis at Schiphol Airport. How so? 

Rise in Costs

As has been repeated many times in our article, the Ukraine-Russia war exacerbated prices across the globe, especially in Europe, which forced many trade unions to ask for a rise in wages across the sector.

This has allowed workers to take industrial actions and refuse to return to work due to ‘low’ salaries. This has created a knock-on structural problem all across the industry, as personnel is becoming more adaptive to working flexibly and remotely, which contributes to the low morale in returning to the workplace.

As aviation is trying to increase its personnel, the airport group is hitting a brick wall in convincing staff to re-work in the industry.