Because Schiphol sticks to maximum limits for the number of daily departing travelers for months longer, the airlines are able to sell far fewer tickets and therefore miss out on turnover. Fruitema calls Tuesday’s airport announcement “very disappointing” and “unexpected”. He points out that Schiphol previously said that things would get better in August. “I also don’t know what to believe about Schiphol anymore.”
The industry leader, who can count airlines such as Emirates, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Delta among his supporters, believes that Schiphol’s image is getting an extra dent. He indicates that it could take years before Schiphol is looked at in the same way abroad as before. The fact that other major airports, such as Heathrow, have also been experiencing problems lately, would not change that.
In the meantime, some airlines are also considering reducing the number of flights at Schiphol or looking for another European hub. Fruitema does not mention names, but does outline that everyone in aviation who looks at Schiphol from, for example, the United States or Asia, is deterred by all the chaos at the airport and especially by the government’s intention to structurally reduce the number of aircraft movements at Schiphol to 440,000 per year. . “Then you wonder whether you still want to invest here,” says Fruitema.
