For Saturday, Schiphol came with a request to reduce the number of passengers by 3,500, on Sunday the airport is aiming for 5,800 fewer passengers. “We are not there yet”, admits operational director Patricia Vitalis of Schiphol. She also indicates that KLM no longer requires cancellations. The airline has already announced that it will cancel 47 flights for Saturday and Sunday.
But other airlines that normally transfer a lot of people at Schiphol might be able to do so this once at other European airports, Vitalis says. Just like Saturday, some flights will also be transferred to Rotterdam The Hague Airport on Sunday. For the time being, this only concerns two flights, one from Transavia and one from Corendon.
Safety
According to Vitalis, Schiphol is concerned with the safety of passengers and staff in the terminal. There are so many people that the security they have to go through cannot handle it “unfortunately”. On Sunday, she expects about 70,000 departing passengers to pass through the security gates, or 10,000 more than on Saturday. If we look at all incoming and departing passengers, so including transfer passengers, this concerns numbers of 190,000 and 170,000.
“It was very busy this morning and there were long lines at the check-in counters,” Vitalis says. “People sometimes had to queue for up to two hours to get through security.” A glance at the departure boards revealed that flights had also been delayed. Schiphol employees tried to steer the passenger flows in the right direction as much as possible. And the fire brigade handed out water to waiting travelers. By the end of the afternoon Saturday the worst of the crowds had passed.
Vitalis acknowledges that the situation is “very annoying for travelers”. But she does not rule out the possibility that Schiphol will ask airlines to cancel flights more often this year. Due to the corona pandemic, the airport is suffering from major staff shortages. People lost their jobs during the pandemic because of fewer flights for nearly two years. And not everyone has returned to their old job