“Solutions must be sought within existing frameworks and not put more pressure on the environment,” says Harbers. He points to the maximum that has been set for the number of night flights. “There are no more flights here.”
Flights cancelled
KLM will cancel eight flights this weekend to help ease the expected crowds at Schiphol. The airline did this at the request of the airport after consultation about the problems. It concerns an intercontinental flight and seven European return flights, all on Sundays.
State Secretary Harbers calls it ‘in the first place extremely annoying for all travelers’ that they are confronted with long queues and cancellations during the May holiday because Schiphol suffers from staff shortages. According to him, it is up to Schiphol to tackle that problem, but he says it is good that airlines ‘also think about solutions for themselves’.
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A KLM spokesperson emphasizes that he does not want to deviate from the agreements that have been made about the number of night flights. But the company does not see cancellation as a good solution either. As far as KLM is concerned, other solutions must first be looked at, such as spreading flights and making use of other airports.
Other Airports
Incidentally, many other European airports also expect more delays this summer. During the corona crisis, many jobs were lost at airports and now that there is a lot of work, there are few new workers to be found.
The majority of European airports expect more flights to be delayed this summer. This is apparent from a survey by ACI Europe, a European trade association for airports. Two-thirds indicated that the number of delays is likely to increase due to staff shortages. There too, many jobs were lost due to the corona crisis, and there is now more work to be found, and there is hardly any staff to be found.
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