Today airlines were told how much they can fly to Schiphol next summer. The 84 airlines operating in Schiphol are allowed to fly 3.1 percent less than they are entitled to.
This was announced by the slot coordinator, who is responsible for the distribution of take-off and landing rights (so-called slots).
Slot coordinator Hugo Thomassen says this means 5,700 fewer flights for the Air France KLM group, which includes Transavia. The summer term lasts from April to October.
Shrinking may continue
The outgoing cabinet wants Schiphol to be downsized, especially because residents are disturbed by the noise. The cabinet takes the first step for the next season; There is still room for 460,000 flights per year at Schiphol from April. That’s why all companies now make concessions.
KLM says it is disappointed. For KLM alone, this means around 17 fewer flights per day compared to before the Corona crisis, the company said. Airlines, led by KLM, appealed to the court to stop the reduction in flight movements, but on appeal the state was right: the reduction was allowed to continue.
Airlines will continue to appeal to the Supreme Court, a last resort, to challenge the court decision. “KLM is focusing on the appeal case to prove that the procedure used was not in compliance with the law and regulations,” the company wrote in response to the final settlement.
Newcomers are left out
The slot coordinator said the distribution will change if the Supreme Court allows more flights to be operated. First, the slot coordinator would allocate more historical slots.
Historical take-off and landing rights are of great importance to airlines. If companies use (the majority of) the slots allocated to them, they reserve the rights of these slots. Due to the contraction, the slot coordinator was not able to allocate all historical rights for next summer.
Therefore, newcomers without historical rights are completely excluded, including the airline JetBlue. The company has been operating at Schiphol Airport since the end of August, but the airline will not be given take-off and landing rights next summer. This also applies to the other 23 new additions.
In a letter previously sent to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Resources and seen by De Telegraaf, the US Department of Transportation had threatened that KLM would also lose its rights in the US if American airlines lost slots due to contraction.
The outgoing cabinet is determined to reduce the size of the airport to 452,500 flight movements. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management is currently conducting a procedure with the European Commission.
Source: NOS
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
