johan rebel

I short while ago I counted 28 canceled KLM departures tomorrow (that could include some codeshares, I just did a very cursory scan). Over half of those are between 4 and 5 p.m., and a good chuck of the rest around 8 p.m. These cancelations could of course be for all sorts of reasons, but Schiphol will no doubt make a convenient scapegoat.

Maybe I'm just too stupid, but I don't get it.

Schiphol has asked airlines to cancel flights over the weekend, and to not accept any new bookings for pax departing from AMS all of next week. So the problem is obviously security for departing pax, with the resulting crowds also causing congestion elsewhere, such as the check-in areas. So how is canceling a bunch of flights supposed to help?

- unless airlines just tell the pax concerned to get stuffed (contractually not an option), they will have to accommodate them on other flights. For pax booked to depart from AMS, what options are there other than rebooking them other flights from the same airport? Putting the same number of pax on fewer flights won't solve Schiphol's problems, it will just move them around. Or rather keep them waiting in the same line but at other hours.

- a lot of pax on any canceled flights will be transfer pax (the majority in KL's case). They will by definition have to be rebooked on later flights, and therefore have to hang around at the airport longer. How exactly is that supposed to ease crowding? Some of these pax may even have to be accommodated overnight in hotels, which means they will have to leave the airport, and then come back again the next day, adding to the queues at security.

- every AMS departure canceled means a canceled return flight back to AMS. These flights would have carried pax who would just have walked straight out of the airport, and others just heading to the gate for their connecting flight. Many of the latter would not have to go through security. Canceling these flights would suck for the pax, yet do very little to ease congestion at the airport.

So what am I missing here? As far as I can tell, all Schiphol is doing is passing the buck to the airlines, hoping they will solve problems the airport should have seen coming, and should have tried harder to do something about.

As soon as I realized that the end of the pandemic (or the various harsh government measures to combat it, rather) would unleash a tsunami of pent-up travel demand, I decided to curtail my own travel as much as possible. Pretty successfully, but there are limits. Tickets for four AMS flights popped up in my inbox this evening. I fortunately rarely travel on weekends, but I'm not sure that will help all that much. I don't want to think about what Schiphol will look like when the Dutch school summer vacations start.

Johan