Air India’s comeback at Schiphol was short-lived. Five months after the company started a new scheduled service between New Delhi and Amsterdam, the four weekly flights have already been canceled. There is insufficient capacity available at the airport to offer Air India landing rights this winter.
After a 26-year absence, no effort was spared last summer to… return from Air India to celebrate. With the landing of the Boeing Dreamliner on June 11, an Indian airline was at Schiphol for the first time in four years.
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NH Airtime: The ‘maharaja’ is back at Schiphol – NH News / Doron Sajet
Although the decision of the Indian company was received with loud cheers by the Indian community in the Netherlands, among others, just five months later the curtain fell again on the scheduled service.
Lack of capacity
This has to do with a lack of capacity, writes Aviation news. Last month, the so-called slot coordinator announced that Air India had been put on the waiting list due to a lack of slots (time blocks within which aircraft are allowed to take off or land).
That is now known there are insufficient slots available for Air India to continue the scheduled service during the coming winter period. And because the number of flights, and therefore the number of slots, will be further limited next year, a new comeback by Air India is unlikely.
It is not known whether and how many affected customers there are. It is clear that Air India has stopped selling tickets after November after it became known that the chance of slots for the winter period would be minimal.
The discontinuation of the scheduled service may be a harbinger for other companies. Due to the planned shrinkage, more scheduled services and companies may disappear from Schiphol.
Jet Blue
This fear is especially prevalent among newcomer Jet Blue, the American airline that earlier this year competed with KLM and Delta Airlines on the routes to and from New York and Boston.
That company recently tried to convince the American government to take away KLM’s landing rights at New York’s JFK airport if Schiphol’s shrinkage meant that Jet Blue was no longer welcome in Amsterdam.
In any case, the closure of Air India is good news for KLM, because that is the only other airline that flies between Amsterdam and New Delhi.
The last Air India flight is expected to arrive at Schiphol tonight at 6:35 PM. The company’s (temporary) last departure is more than two hours later, at 8:45 PM.