A relaxed start to the holiday is not possible at Schiphol. This weekend it is again very busy at the airport and Schiphol has canceled 47 flights for today and tomorrow. Travelers are not the most difficult and have their trips rebooked, as long as they can go on holiday.
The busy May holidays, the staff shortage and the strike last weekend caused hours of delay or even cancellations. With the 47 canceled flights, Schiphol will reduce passengers by 3,500.
The passengers have been rebooked to another flight or company, so that they can fly from Rotterdam The Hague Airport. It has an effect, despite the crowds, waiting times at Schiphol seem to have been reduced considerably.
The association of travel companies ANVR is not pleased with the decision to cancel and the international trade association IATA also finds it scandalous, NOS reports.
To Cyprus instead of Greece
What do you do when your long-awaited vacation is cancelled? Frank Oostdam of the ANVR sees that travelers with canceled flights last week are not the most difficult. They especially like to go on holiday. Even if that means rebooking the flight, from Greece to Cyprus.
Oostdam: “That’s a lucky break. We prefer travelers to rebook, if travelers don’t want to go at all, that costs travel organizations a lot of money. They can request money back for airline tickets, but they still have to pay for booked hotels.”
Yet Oostdam sees many travel organizations struggling with the crowds and cancellations at Schiphol. Despite the crowds, he notes that after the first weekend it was fortunately not too bad in terms of canceled flights, with some improvisation and ‘push and pull’ most holiday flights were still able to leave, after a considerable delay.
He regularly meets with the management of Schiphol this week, for the time being mainly to get through this weekend. After that, the intention is also to devise solutions in the long term, although that is not going smoothly. “Schiphol really wants to solve the problems, but the only real solution is more staff.”
No longer via Schiphol?
Oostdam does not think it is better for travelers and travel organizations to avoid Schiphol from now on. “We hear from many people that the holiday starts when you are at Schiphol. I assume that the situation will improve and we hope that this is an exception, I am convinced that the staff shortage will eventually resolve.”
What travelers should do is keep a close eye on the website of the travel organizations and their e-mail. There they receive a message about the expected waiting time, which, depending on the organisation, can be one or two hours extra.
And get used to the crowds. “If you go in the high season it is always busy. With the car you have Black Saturday, then you also have a lot of delay. In addition, the airport now also has to check tests, which also costs extra time.”