Schiphol Airport Reduced Capacity - How Will It Affect Easter Vacation Plans?

Due to a lack of available workers, Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport will keep restricting passenger numbers in April and May.

There will be less of a limit on flights leaving in the mornings beginning at the end of March, but the airport will still function at decreased capacity. Every day between the hours of 6am and 1pm, carriers will need to reserve 5% fewer seats, accounting for around 5,000 fewer travellers.

The new regulations will be in effect throughout the month of April and into the middle of May, covering the Dutch school vacation as well. The limits are intended to prevent unnecessary congestion at airport services including check-in, safety screening, and passport checks.

Even while passenger limitations at Schiphol will remain in place, the prognosis is more optimistic than it was during the previous winter, when it was at about 20 percent.

From a low of 40,000 in the winter of 2022 to a high of 66,000 in the month of May, a rise of 65% is expected in the average number of leaving passengers per day. At its highest, it may approach 70,000 people. This is 14% more than the average daily passengers in May of 2022 (58,000) and only 2% less than the average daily passengers in 2019 (72,000).

KLM has said that despite having to sell fewer seats overall due to the limitations, it would not cancel any flights.

As to why Schiphol Airport is limiting arrivals, departures, and transfers, read on.

In order to prevent an overcrowding of Schiphol, quotas have been put in place.

Because of the coronavirus crisis, it, like many other places, has had a scarcity of personnel. Strikes over wages and working conditions in the spring and summer of last year only made the situation worse.

Airport interim CEO Ruud Sondag remarked, upon the release of the Schiphol Group's annual report revealing massive financial losses for 2022, "2022 will go down as a bad chapter in our own history books." And it's an episode we won't forget, so that the next ones we write are even better, he also added.

Security and luggage processing capacity shortages at Schiphol Airport resulted in lengthy lines and aircraft delays and cancellations this past summer. Because of this, Schiphol decided to implement passenger quotas in an effort to reduce the congestion.

There has never been a year like 2022 in Schiphol's history, when so many passengers and airlines were let down. In this regard, the union has committed to raise salaries and enhance working conditions to produce a more contented and resilient labour force, hoping that the ongoing crisis will come to an end.

 

Source: euronews.com