Six flights from tour operator Corendon and four from TUI depart to Rotterdam. Transavia is moving one departing flight from Schiphol to Rotterdam The Hague Airport.
In Eelde in Drenthe there is room to handle 1 or 2 extra flights per hour for a short period. “That comes down to 8 to 16 flights a day,” explains a spokeswoman for Groningen Eelde Airport. Space is more limited in Eindhoven because it is already busy there due to the May holidays.
Maastricht Aachen Airport also has room to take over flights from Schiphol, but cannot yet name concrete numbers. According to a spokeswoman, it is more about “a few than dozens of flights.”
Issues
Schiphol wants to prevent unmanageable crowds and is consulting with airlines about a solution, with the emphasis on rescheduling flights. The country’s largest airport is struggling with staff shortages in security and handling baggage and passengers. Last weekend, Schiphol asked airlines to cancel bookings so that the departure halls would not be overcrowded. Dozens of flights were cancelled. That is not yet on the agenda for next weekend, although the airport did not want to rule it out completely either.
How many flights from Schiphol can divert to other airports depends on various factors. For example, for each flight to be taken over, calculations have to be made for, for example, the noise.