Regional airports can take over dozens of flights from Schiphol

Regional airports can take over at least 35 flights from Schiphol in the coming weekend. Rotterdam The Hague Airport is taking over 11 flights. Eindhoven Airport offered to take over eight flights on Saturday and Sunday. Groningen Airport Eelde expects to be able to handle at least 16 extra flights on the two weekend days.

Six flights from tour operator Corendon and four from TUI will move to Rotterdam. Transavia is moving one departing flight from Schiphol to Rotterdam The Hague Airport.

The airport in Eelde, Drenthe, has room to handle one or two extra flights per hour for a short period. "That comes down to 8 to 16 flights a day," explained a spokeswoman for Groningen Eelde Airport. Space is more limited in Eindhoven because it is already busy there due to the May holidays.

Maastricht Aachen Airport also has room to take over flights from Schiphol but cannot yet give concrete numbers. According to a spokeswoman, it's more "a few than dozens of flights."

Schiphol is trying to prevent unmanageable crowds and is consulting with airlines about a solution, with the emphasis on rescheduling flights. The country's largest airport is struggling with staff shortages in security and baggage and passenger handling. Last weekend, Schiphol asked airlines to cancel bookings so that the departure halls would not be overcrowded. Dozens of flights were canceled. That is not yet on the agenda for this weekend, although the airport didn't rule it out entirely either.

How many flights can divert from Schiphol to other airports depends on various factors, including things like noise calculations.