One of Europe’s busiest airports to cap passengers through early 2023
Travelers queue outside Schiphol airport
By Eve Brennan, CNN
Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport — one of Europe’s busiest — announced plans Thursday to continue capping the number of travelers departing from the airport through early 2023.
The airport said that it made the decision in consultation with airlines, “which are not happy about it,” Schiphol said in a news release.
Caps are expected to extend through the end of March, although Schiphol said it would look at the situation again toward the end of the year to see “whether more might be possible from the end of January.”
“Schiphol has made this choice to provide travelers a reliable travel experience, and predictability and stability for airlines,” the release said. “At the same time, the airport is hard at work to improve capacity at security.”
The airport said it is working with security companies and unions to improve the situation, noting the challenges of a tight labor market.
“It’s something to be realistic about,” said Hanne Buis, COO at Royal Schiphol Group, in a statement. “That’s why it will only become clear later this year whether more is possible after January.”
The news release did not provide a number for the capacity limitations. It said that slot coordinators would work with airlines to meet the airport’s capacity requirements.
One of the world’s busiest airports
Schiphol Airport is one of the world’s busiest airports for international passenger traffic. It was the world’s No. 3 airport in 2021 for international passengers, behind airports in Dubai and Istanbul, according to figures from Airports Council International.
A passenger cap was first introduced at the airport in June, with Schiphol blaming a higher-than-expected demand for travel and a tight labor market leaving too few employees to cope with it.
The airport announced in August that it would extend passenger limits through September and October
In September, the number of passengers departing the airport was limited to 67,500, the airport said in a statement. That number was increased to 69,500 per day in October.
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Top image: Travelers queue outside Schiphol Airport on September 13. (Photo by Sem van der Wal / ANP / AFP) CNN’s Marnie Hunter, Rob North and Livvy Doherty contributed to this report.
