Schiphol to start cutting flights this winter; dropping 17,000 flight movements

Schiphol Airport is cutting 17,000 flight movements this winter, meaning the airport will shrink to 483,000 flight movements this flight year, which ends at the end of September. The Amsterdam airport’s slot coordinator Hugo Thomassen of the Airport Coordination Netherlands (ACNL) confirmed this to the Telegraaf.

The Cabinet wants Schiphol to shrink to 440,000 flight movements by next year. The court recently scrapped the first step of shrinking to 460,000 flight movements this year. The appeal in that case will happen soon, but the verdict will come too late because the winter slots have now been divided. Schiphol will only be able to cut more flights next summer.

“In total, there are 17,000 slots on the shelf of airlines that have gone bankrupt in recent years and that have not been resubmitted to me by Schiphol,” Thomassen said to the Telegraaf. Airlines left another 2,100 slots unfilled, which Schiphol is now redistributing.

Schiphol would not comment to the Telegraaf about the scrapped flight movements. The 17,000 slots are almost 30 percent of the total the government wants to scrap.