Amsterdam flights at risk as Netherlands cuts slots

The Dutch government’s impending capacity restrictions at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport are set to have far-reaching consequences for airlines during the upcoming 2024 summer season and beyond, with KLM to be most affected. Air Serbia and Croatia Airlines, which maintain scheduled services to the Dutch city, are not at risk of being denied rights to maintain operations as both have so-called “historic slot rights”, however, those that have historically served the airport will receive 3.1% fewer slots than before. Schiphol is due to reduce the number of permitted flights from the current annual limit of 500.000 to 460.000 starting March 31, 2024, when the Dutch government's highly criticised experimental scheme to reduce noise pollution and CO2 emissions comes into effect.

Airlines without historic rights, such as, for example, newcomer jetBlue from the US, have not been allocated any slots for next summer and will be forced to discontinue operations. A total of 24 airlines have been denied slots for the upcoming summer. KLM, as Schiphol Airport’s largest carrier, will be most impacted. Based on leaked documents from last year, KLM could potentially terminate over thirty destinations from its network, with the likes of Belgrade, Zagreb, Istanbul, Porto and Tel Aviv all potentially being removed or reduced. The Dutch carrier has not officially specified or confirmed which routes will be impacted but its CEO, Marjan Rintel, said this week, “KLM anticipates a reduction in its European network due to Schiphol’s flight reduction plans. We expect to operate seventeen fewer flights per day during the summer of 2024 as a result of the reduction in flight movements at Schiphol”. KLM, along with other airlines, is challenging this downsizing in court, citing potential risks to its future and Schiphol’s hub function.

Transavia, which maintains operations between Amsterdam and Ljubljana, is looking to shift capacity to other Dutch airports, including the likes of Rotterdam and Eindhoven. The budget carrier, which also strongly opposes the Dutch government’s capacity cuts, is hopeful the plan will be struck down in the courts or by the European Commission, however, until either of the two happen, the airline has begun preparing for a difficult 2024 summer season.

This winter, both KLM and Transavia have either increased frequencies or capacity to most cities they serve in the former Yugoslavia. KLM is operating double daily flights to both Belgrade and Zagreb, as well as a one weekly service to Split. This represents an increase in operations to the Serbian and Croatian capitals from seven weekly rotations last winter, but a reduction from five weekly flights to Split. On the other hand, as previously reported, starting December 21, Transavia is increasing capacity on its Ljubljana service from the 189-seat B737-800 to the 232-seat A321neo aircraft as the airline begins to transition from an all-Boeing to an all-Airbus fleet. Ljubljana becomes one of the first destinations in its network to be served by the new aircraft type in its fleet. Air Serbia is maintaining eight weekly rotations between Belgrade and Amsterdam this winter season (up from seven weekly last winter), while Croatia Airlines is operating a daily service from Zagreb to the Dutch city.