Schiphol confirms restrictions returning to limit departing passengers

Schiphol Airport has confirmed plans to again force airlines to limit the total number of departing passengers during the April and May school vacation period. The airport wants the maximum passenger total to be 5 percent lower, meaning airlines will either have to restrict the number of seats they can sell, or they will either have to consolidate flights, cancel flights, or move flights to other airports.

The reduction will mean approximately 5,000 fewer passengers will be allowed compared to a more ideal situation. “Schiphol believes a 5 percent easing of the busy morning peak is needed to reduce the risk of unacceptable delays for travellers at check-in, security check and passport control,” the airport confirmed in a statement.

The cuts should take effect at the start of April. The new maximum capacity restriction should end on May 14. Additionally, it is expected that the peak hours between 6 a.m. and 1 p.m. is when most cuts will take place. Those are usually the airport’s busiest hours.

The airport added that departing passenger totals should still be 14 percent higher compared to the May vacation period in 2022, when 58,000 passengers departed on average per day. That period started with a wildcat strike by some KLM ground crews, who were demanding better pay and a reduced workload without informing their labor unions in advance. In the months that followed, excessive crowds frequently jammed the departure halls, often standing in lines that led out into the street, as the airport faced a shortage of workers to staff security checkpoints and baggage handling positions.

Temporary bonuses were offered to security workers to help guarantee a smoother summer holiday period, but the problems quickly returned. It ultimately led to the resignation of Dick Benschop as CEO of the airport group.

A year before the coronavirus pandemic, the May vacation period in 2019 saw the airport handle an average of 72,000 passengers daily. Even with increased security staffing, the airport said it will be able to handle “well above 70,000” passengers on peak days during the May holidays this year.

Last month, interim CEO Ruud Sondag said that there would be no new capacity limits during the spring holiday. Then, earlier in February, Schiphol’s corporate affairs director, Kees Boef, told De Telegraaf that an “extra safety margin of 5 percent” would be needed to make sure the airport can adequately handle all departing passengers during the May holiday, which begins everywhere in the Netherlands on April 29 and ends on May 7.

The airport noted that despite the mandatory cuts, the situation is still better than during the winter, when, an average of 40,000 people departed daily. That means the May holiday period should see an increase of about 65 percent.