Consumer to pay the price for Schiphol downsizing plans

The Ministry of Infrastructure expects that the consumer will pay the price for its downsizing plans for Schiphol Airport, De Telegraaf reports from a Ministry document on the reduction of flight movements at the airport. Flight tickets from Schiphol will become more expensive, and more travelers and airlines will opt to use airports across the border, the Ministry expects.

The document also states that transfer passengers will have to wait longer and that fewer destinations will be available from Schiphol. The Ministry also expects that jobs will be lost around Schiphol, which will result in “less tax income and higher expenditure on allowances,” according to the newspaper.

The Ministry didn’t mention any actual figures in the document. But aviation economist Rogier Lieshout expects that ticket prices for air travel will rise by an average of 5 to 10 percent. He thinks this and the other effects the downsizing plans will have will deter some people from using Schiphol. “Some will go on holiday by car. Others will go to other foreign airports,” he said.

Corendon has consciously expanded its presence at airports just across the Dutch border in recent years, including at Brussels and Weeze. The holiday flyer also recently ordered new planes with more seats. A lucky decision, CEO Steven van der Heijden told the Telegraaf, because the 14 extra seats mean that Corendon’s total capacity does not have to reduce when the government starts cutting Schiphol’s flight movements. “But the shrinkage also means scarcity, and so flights become more expensive,” Van der Heijden said.

Travel agency TUI is also looking at more cooperation with TUI Belgium and TUI Germany, though it intends to keep Schiphol as its base, CEO Arjan Kers told the Telegraaf. The company is also concerned about further price increases. Kers stressed that going on holiday must remain available to everyone and not become unaffordable to some consumers.

KLM wouldn’t comment on the consequences of Schiphol’s downsizing until the plans are certain. The Dutch airline previously warned that a cut in flight movements would come at the expense of at least 30 destinations. According to the Telegraaf, KLM’s budget subsidiary Transavia will likely be the victim because fewer flights will be possible in a day. Transavia warned that prices will rise and destinations will disappear.

On Thursday, the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch Parliament, gave caretaker Minister Mark Harbers of Infrastructure permission to continue working on his plan to cut flight movements at Schiphol from April next year. The Kamer is in the process of deciding which topics are “too controversial” for the caretaker Cabinet to handle and must wait for a new Cabinet to be installed after the elections in November.

The downsizing plans recently drew the ire of the United States, who accused the Netherlands of violating the U.S.-EU Air Transport Agreement and suggested that American carriers losing slots at Schiphol would put a strain on the cooperation between Dutch and American airlines.