Amsterdam Airport Working On A Way To Kick Out JetBlue, After All – View from the Wing
Amsterdam Airport Working On A Way To Kick Out JetBlue, After All
Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport planned to reduce allowable flights in order to appease local residents, who almost certainly all moved in (indeed, were born) after the airport opened in 1916 to military traffic and in 1920 to civilian traffic.
KLM was going to benefit from reduced competition, but even they said they preferred not to see their own flights limited even though it meant limitation on flights by other airlines – and even denying access to the airport to carriers like JetBlue.
The U.S. sent the Dutch government a missive reminding them that a decision to ban a U.S. airline was in violation of the E.U.’s Open Skies treaty with the United States. The government said, yeah you’re right sorry.
But now the airport is talking about a work-around. A year ago the airport was facing a severe staff shortage that was causing meltdowns at immigration and elsewhere, and causing their baggage system to disintegrate. At one point KLM refused to accept connecting baggage on intra-European journeys. And the airport limited flights since they couldn’t handle the volume.
The workaround, in the face of their national government deciding they cannot limit flights to appease locals? Just manufacture a new staffing crisis!
Amsterdam (AMS) may use its recurring staffing issues to justify a cut in terminal capacity for Summer 2024 to essentially reinstate a form of slots after the Dutch government abandoned plans to impose a cut in slots for Summer 2024.
It is speculated that carriers like JetBlue and Air India could still be out of luck and now be unable to operate in Summer 2024. Of course, the DOT would retaliate against such a move regardless of whether it was imposed by the airport or the government.
Although it seems to me that the airport has plenty of people on property with spare time on their hands, but not to perform check-in or baggage duties, just for killing Jews:
Manifestation sauvage pro-palestinienne à l’aéroport d’Amsterdam-Schiphol pour demander un cessez-le-feu dans la bande de Gaza.pic.twitter.com/bVa5Rbq6uV
— air plus news (@airplusnews) November 14, 2023
