KLM cancelled over 6,400 flights last year, including 10% of December schedule

Lousy weather and delayed aircraft management resulted in many flight cancelations for KLM last year. The Dutch airline canceled 6,424 flights worldwide, including 3,717 flights from Schiphol Airport. In December, 10 percent of KLM’s Schiphol departures got canceled, RTL Nieuws reports based on data from EU Flight Compensation.

The entire fourth quarter of 2023 was a hard one for KLM cancellations. In October, November, and December, the airline canceled 4,355 flights, including almost 2,100 from Schiphol Airport. In December, 980 KLM departures from Schiphol were canceled, 10 percent of the total.

Over the entire 2023, KLM canceled around 3 percent of its flights, almost double compared to 2022’s 1.7 percent, the broadcaster reported.

KLM would not confirm the figures but acknowledged that it had a high number of cancellations last year. “We have had to cancel many more flights in 2023 than in pre-Covid years,” a spokesperson told RTL Nieuws.

According to the airline, the cancellations had several reasons, including an incredible amount of bad weather. “The fact that aircraft cannot take off with a lot of crosswinds, in combination with the fact that only one runway at Schiphol is suitable for use with a westerly wind, meant that on many days, the runway capacity was limited.” The airline also faced delays in aircraft maintenance, strikes in Germany, and high absenteeism during flu season, the company said.

KLM said it is “dissatisfied” with the many flights that could not take place. “Ultimately, it does not matter to a passenger why a flight has been canceled. It is important for a passenger that they can depart at the agreed time,” the spokesperson said.

RTL also found that KLM did not use 32,000 of its allocated “slots” - times during which the airline can perform a landing or takeoff - at Schiphol Airport last year. That is about 12 percent of the slots allocated to KLM.

KLM will present its annual figures on Thursday.