The airport aimed to reduce the number of passengers by 5,800 on Sunday, but it did not succeed. A spokesperson said there were long queues early in the morning.
On Saturday, Schiphol warned the airlines that stricter measures were needed to limit the passenger flow, such as the cancellation of flights.
Earlier this week, KLM decided to be the only airline to respond to Schiphol’s appeal. The airline has canceled 47 flights for Saturday and Sunday. KLM can transfer travelers relatively easily to other flights at the same destination, because the Dutch airline operates many flights from Schiphol. As a result, KLM has more rebooking options than airlines that only fly from Schiphol to a specific destination once or twice a week.
Most travelers on the canceled KLM flights were transferred to a flight that departed a few hours earlier or later. Travel organizations Corendon and TUI did not cancel any flights on Saturday, but did move four holiday flights from Schiphol to Rotterdam.
Airline EasyJet has already indicated that it does not intend to change the flight schedule, and says it is in consultation with the airport about other solutions.
manageable saturday
Despite great crowds, the situation at Schiphol remained manageable on Saturday. No flights were canceled and many travelers arrived at the airport well in advance because of the long waiting times. Schiphol takes into account that it will be even busier on Sundays.
Due to the May holidays in combination with acute staff shortages, there have been long queues at the airport for days. During the pandemic, when there was almost no flying, the aviation industry got rid of a large part of its flex workers. Those people have now found other work and are not coming back now that half of the Netherlands wants to go on a flying holiday again.
An airport spokesperson says that Schiphol has been fully committed to recruiting new staff for some time, but that it is not possible to fill the vacancies due to the shortage on the labor market. ANVR chairman Oostdam finds it culpable that Schiphol has not resolved the personnel problem in time. ‘We already saw in January that it would become very busy, because the bookings for flight holidays during the May holiday went very quickly.’
The staff shortage is greatest among the security guards who check hand luggage and travelers. The airport is about 500 security guards short of a workforce of 5,000. There is also a staff shortage at the check-in counters for checked baggage and passengers.
