KLM forced to scrap 20% of Schiphol fights due to NATO Summit in June

KLM will have to scrap a fifth of their flights at Schiphol near the NATO Summit in June. A spokesperson confirmed this to De Telegraaf. The airline has not yet decided which flights will be scrapped. The company has said that they are trying to limit the burden for passengers as much as possible.

Slot coordinator ACNL announced in December that 25 to 30 percent of the flights at Schiphol will be affected between June 21 and June 27. In addition to adaptions as a result of the NATO Summit, which take place on June 24 and June 25, the Buitenveldertbaan is also closed for a large maintenance project during this period. The combination of these two developments will result in less lanes being used than usual, which then leads to a lack of capacity.

Airlines have been planning the impact of this since December. It has been shown from this that one in ten flights at Schiphol will be cancelled, a fifth will be given different departure times. Hugo Thomassen of the ACNL confirmed this to Luchtvaartnieuws.

KLM is by far the largest airline operating at Schiphol, accounting for roughly 250,000 flights when including KLM Cityhopper in 2024. That was roughly 53 percent of all passenger, cargo, charter and private flights at the airport. EasyJet aircraft took off and landed at Schiphol 34,000 times last year, and KLM subsidiary Transavia organized 32,000 flights there, putting that airline in third.

According to the KLM spokesperson, this will result in high costs for the airline. They are attempting to limit the impact by looking at destinations which have several daily flights. In this way, passengers can be rebooked to a different flight.

Of the 68 million million passengers who flew through Schiphol Airport last year, nearly 6 million used the airport in June. Over the course of the year, passengers traveled to and from 301 destinations on 94 different airlines. A total of 473,815 flight movements were handled by the airport in Haarlemmermeer, just outside of Amsterdam.