TUI moves flights from Schiphol to Brussels in October
Travel organization TUI will move several flights from Amsterdam to Brussels in October due to the limitations on the maximum number of departing passengers allowed at Schiphol Airport. According to TUI, the affected flights are holidays bookings with departures during the 10 to 31 October period to the destinations Tenerife, Kos, Mallorca, Crete and Gambia.
Due to the problems with staff shortages at security and large crowds of waiting passengers standing in long queues, Schiphol asked airlines last week to reduce the number of daily passengers by an average of 18 percent until at least the end of October.
“Schiphol has again issued a flight capacity limitation for October, forcing airlines to reduce flights. It is extremely disappointing and unacceptable that Schiphol continues to leave it to others to solve their problems. We do not want our travelers to be the victim and we are not going to cancel holidays," TUI said in a statement. All other holidays will depart as planned from the booked airport, TUI continued.
Price fighter easyJet has said it will cancel a number of flights from Schiphol until 30 October due to the extra capacity limit. This mainly concerns flights on routes where easyJet flies several times a day. With this move, the company wants to protect flights to holiday destinations..
KLM expects to have to cancel an average of fifteen flights a day from Schiphol this week to meet the restrictions at the airport. The company said it will look next week to see if cancellations will still be necessary after that.
Travel organization Sunweb said that the flight restriction at Schiphol did not cause any cancellations, but that there can be changes such as a flight from Rotterdam or an alternative flight from Amsterdam.
Reporting by ANP