EasyJet scrapping more Schiphol flights this summer

Airline EasyJet will cancel more flights at Schiphol because the airport is reducing the number of flight movements this summer. Due to staff shortages, Schiphol can handle fewer passengers during the holiday period. Last week EasyJet said it was waiting for details, but now the airline decided to cancel more flights.

The budget airline wants to give customers more time to book an alternative flight. A spokesperson expects that EasyJet can offer the vast majority of passengers another flight within 24 hours of their original trip.

EasyJet couldn’t yet say how many flights it would cancel. The airline previously assumed it would sell almost as many tickets (97 percent) during the summer until the end of September as it did in the same period in pre-pandemic 2019. The airline now adjusted that to 90 percent. 

The British low-cost airline is one of the larger users at Schiphol. EasyJet is also canceling flights at London’s Gatwick Airport, which struggles with the same problems as Schiphol.

The airline already reported a few weeks ago that it canceled a number of flights from Amsterdam to London Gatwick and London Luton proactively before the summer. That was also because of the large crowds at Schiphol. According to a spokesperson, the current measure comes on top of those cancellations.

Schiphol announced last week that there would be an average of 13,500 too many passengers to handle in July if all scheduled planes are completely full. That is almost 17 percent of seats planned per day on average. The airport slot coordinator is working out what this will mean for each airline. More details should be released this week.