KLM will cancel 34 flights that would depart from Schiphol on Saturday. The airline announced this on Saturday morning. The cancellations are in response to Schiphol’s announcement on Friday that the number of departing passengers must also decrease in the coming weeks. Due to a shortage of security guards, the airport can handle fewer travelers than expected. Over the past week, there have been several very long queues in, and sometimes outside, the airport terminals.
Certainly until the end of October, the number of travelers departing from Schiphol per day must be reduced by about nine thousand. The 34 flights that KLM will cancel on Saturday were scheduled to depart between 09:30 and 17:00 and would have “a large number of passengers boarding in Amsterdam” on board. By canceling these flights, KLM hopes to shorten the queues in the terminals and for the security check.
Passengers who would be flown back to Amsterdam with the canceled flights do not have to fear for their journey: KLM sends the planes empty to those destinations to pick up the travelers. Customers whose flight is canceled will be rebooked, although KLM cannot guarantee that this will be on the same day. Additional costs incurred are compensated ‘in the usual way’.
Sunday and Monday
KLM says it is “very displeased” that Schiphol “only indicated on Friday” that fewer people should leave this Saturday, Sunday and Monday. On Friday, other companies, including Transavia, also expressed their dissatisfaction with this state of affairs. KLM is currently looking at how many flights will be canceled on Sunday and Monday. It is also currently unclear what the shortages at Schiphol mean for other airlines.
Schiphol has been struggling with capacity problems since the May holiday: long queues have arisen, partly due to staff shortages, and many travelers have missed their flights. The airport managed to limit these problems in the summer, partly by giving staff a summer allowance. This surcharge came to an end at the beginning of September and it quickly became busier at the airport again. Schiphol itself says that the problem lies with security: security firms with which the airport cooperates would not be able to supply as many employees as previously promised.
Also read: Another contraction at Schiphol