KLM aims to help all travelers stranded elsewhere in Europe on their way on Sunday by arranging a new flight for them. The airline does not yet dare to say whether that will work. The first victims have already flown back to the Netherlands, but work is still being done halfway through the day on rebooking flights.
On Saturday, KLM was forced to cancel the flights of passengers in 42 aircraft, which flew empty from European destinations to Schiphol. A spokesperson explains that the measure was necessary because of adverse weather conditions and runway maintenance.
In addition, Schiphol has been struggling with staff shortages for some time, for example in the handling of baggage. According to the spokesman, this combination of circumstances meant that KLM had to intervene.
Thousands of travelers
It is unclear how many people were affected by the move. It may be thousands of travelers. The airline chose to cancel flights with many transfer passengers. It was very busy at the transfer desks at Schiphol. With this action, KLM wanted to prevent large groups of travelers from being stranded at Schiphol itself.
Many people who became stuck somewhere in Europe as a result and could no longer go to the Netherlands, KLM has offered a hotel. The spokesperson emphasizes that it depends on someone’s situation what KLM does and does not reimburse.
Hours in line
A Dutchman who was stranded in Stockholm on Saturday because her flight to the Netherlands was cancelled, says that she first had to queue for hours in Sweden. Then she was assigned a hotel. “That was a fairly luxurious conference hotel.” But because of all the hassle, she and other stranded travelers didn’t get to the hotel until late at night. “No one could have eaten anything in the meantime.”
Early Sunday morning, the first people from Sweden were put back on the plane. She herself was able to return with a flight that would leave a little later in the morning. “Who has been rebooked to which flight seems completely arbitrary.”
The operation at Schiphol is now running again, KLM indicates. There are still several delays, but planes would often leave only half an hour later than usual. That does not mean that the flight schedule is completely in order. KLM already announced on Friday that it would cancel up to fifty flights a day during the Whitsun weekend to keep the situation manageable. Sunday morning there were indeed several cancellations on the departure boards, especially short flights within Europe.