LONDON – Following recent moves to reduce flight movements and passenger numbers both in and out of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, the major hub remains chaotic as travel demand increases across the summer holidays.

This weekend marks the start of summer holidays for some of the Netherlands.

From Amsterdam Schiphol

A recent press release from the Airport notes that Schiphol anticipates an average of 59,000 local departures from the airport during the summer holidays.

The Airport has recently instigated its ‘Summer Action Plan’, which focuses on attracting staff and making working at Schiphol more attractive.

The intention is to improve the processes at the airport and focus on the number of passengers and flights that can be processed. The Airport facility claims that they have seen improvements.  

Whilst reducing the maximum number of locally departing passengers in July and in the first week of August, Schiphol and its security companies engaged in a recruitment drive to bolster numbers of security staff.  Approximately 200 new security staff are to be recruited.

Re-routing of scheduled flights

Despite the efforts of the Airport to push through the busy summer period, the situation remains chaotic. The decision by authorities to cut movements and travel numbers appears to have been particularly damaging, with several carriers now re-routing scheduled flights away from Schiphol.

This has seen two major carriers – KLM Dutch Airlines and Lufthansa announce a raft of flight cancellations, with Lufthansa making the decision to cancel 700 flights in coming weeks.

With Schiphol being its central hub, KLM has curtailed daily flights to several European destinations, with cancellations looking set to continue into next month.

Royal Air Maroc

The latest carrier to withdraw from operations to and from Amsterdam Schiphol is the Moroccan national flag carrier, Royal Air Maroc. The airline issued the following statement on 8 July:

“Following the decision of the Amsterdam airport authorities (Netherlands) to reduce the number of flights and passengers departing from and arriving at Amsterdam Schiphol airport, some flights of the national carrier Royal Air Maroc, and like all airlines operating at this airport, will be affected.”

“In response to this situation, and in order to ensure the transport of a maximum of passengers, the flights AT850 and AT851 connecting Casablanca to Amsterdam (in both directions) will be transferred at Rotterdam airport instead of Amsterdam airport during the period from July 07th to 21st, 2022.”

“Additional measures will be taken If this situation persist beyond July 21st , 2022. Our customers affected by this change will be informed of all arrangements.”

“They will also be able to change the point of departure or destination within Europe, for the same date of travel and free of charge.”

The situation at Amsterdam airport adds to the various disruptions that airlines are currently going through, at most European airports.”

“Royal Air Maroc will spare no effort to provide real-time information and provide the most suitable solutions to facilitate the travel for its customers, particularly Moroccans around the world.”

As the holiday season closes in, there appears the be little relief to Schiphol’s transit woes.

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