The British low-cost airline does this because of the large crowds at Schiphol, where the airline is one of the largest users.
Passengers have been notified and the vast majority are booked on another flight on the same day, a spokeswoman said. She just doesn’t say exactly how many flights and travelers are involved.
EasyJet said last month it did not plan to cancel flights for the summer peak. But at Schiphol there are currently feverish consultations with airlines. EasyJet indicates that it is “constantly” in talks about the approach to the operation this summer.
Voluntarily
The aim of these discussions is to come to agreements ‘on a voluntary basis’ to relieve the burden on the airport, the airport said earlier. If that fails, Schiphol does not rule out the possibility of forcing airlines to cancel flights.
easyJet is not waiting for the latter. “We believe that imposing a mandatory limitation on the number of flights is not feasible or desirable, as other measures can also be taken and airlines also take their own responsibility.”
EasyJet has a total of nine aircraft and 300 local crew members stationed at Schiphol. The airline does not fly from other airports in the Netherlands and therefore does not see moving flights to smaller airports in the country as an option.
unwanted
Things are different at Transavia, TUI and Corendon, they seem to be more open to moving flights. They focus strongly on holidaymakers and then canceling flights is actually out of the question. “Cancellation is really undesirable,” emphasizes Transavia. TUI sees it the same way, since canceling flights would mean that people’s already booked holidays can no longer go on.
In conversation with the ANP earlier in the day, Corendon CEO Steven van der Heijden was already prepared to move flights to other airports in the region. He is still discussing this with Schiphol.
The CEO also pointed out that the situation at Corendon is very different from that at KLM, which has already decided several times to cancel many flights. “If you have a large network with many switchers, you can still redistribute everything a bit,” said Van der Heijden. “But with us you leave at Schiphol and you land at Schiphol. That is really something different.”