KLM Suspends all intercontinental flights

Old Jan 20, 2021, 10:06 am
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KLM Suspends all intercontinental flights

https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/economie/ar...kers-personeel

https://leaderpost.com/pmn/business-...faae61eb0/amp/

KLM to stop all intercontinental flights due to the addition of a negative rapid test required just before flying (in addition to the 72 hours PCR testing requirement). Some intra-Europe also to be axed. Repatriation flights to continue until Friday.

No words....
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Last edited by ocdb8r; Jan 20, 2021 at 10:14 am
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Old Jan 20, 2021, 10:19 am
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Rutte: Mission Accomplished! <high fives all around>
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Old Jan 20, 2021, 10:26 am
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Holly cow.
Speechless aswell. Let's hope this self-harming trend stops there and doesn't end up affecting all European countries and airlines.
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Old Jan 20, 2021, 11:04 am
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I wil admit I don't know anything about dutch politics, but I find it crazy that they can fight tooth and claw to save KL and Schipol yet they turn around and proceed to murdering the industry.

Network planning department must be going crazy, I heard AF was supposed to finalize their schedule for the next few months in the coming days. I suspect its back to the drawing board for them, at least for some routes.

This also means my upcoming eastbound flights are on the chopping block. Guess I'll be on the phone with my old friend, the platinum line real soon.
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Old Jan 20, 2021, 11:07 am
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Originally Posted by Digicola
I wil admit I don't know anything about dutch politics, but I find it crazy that they can fight tooth and claw to save KL and Schipol yet they turn around and proceed to murdering the industry.

Network planning department must be going crazy, I heard AF was supposed to finalize their schedule for the next few months in the coming days. I suspect its back to the drawing board for them, at least for some routes.

This also means my upcoming eastbound flights are on the chopping block. Guess I'll be on the phone with my old friend, the platinum line real soon.
Yes, round #2 of the PL coming soon, just waiting for KL to officially cancel my flight the 2nd time
On the positive side, having called them both yesterday and today the waiting times were short
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Old Jan 20, 2021, 11:08 am
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Originally Posted by Digicola
This also means my upcoming eastbound flights are on the chopping block. Guess I'll be on the phone with my old friend, the platinum line real soon.
Yep. It's refund time!
Let's have a minute of silence for the team who decided to consolidate eastbound flights on KL birds...
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Old Jan 20, 2021, 11:11 am
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Originally Posted by maalloc
Yep. It's refund time!
I won't complain if they rebook me on SQ that just annonced they are upgauging CDG to daily
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Old Jan 20, 2021, 11:11 am
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It'll be fun trying to get a refund processed for a while...
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Old Jan 20, 2021, 11:20 am
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OMG...
no need to say a word.
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Old Jan 20, 2021, 11:32 am
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Two months to go until the elections. Then we will see how insane the Dutch voter is: more of the same, or finally had enough of it.
I wonder if PM Rutte and de Jonge (Health Secretary) will end up the same way as the de Witt brothers (the PM and his sidekick back in 1672): attacked on the street and brutally murdered.

Johan de Witt - Wikipedia
Rampjaar - Wikipedia
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Last edited by Dieuwer; Jan 20, 2021 at 11:42 am
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Old Jan 20, 2021, 11:47 am
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Pffff, just booked some flights end of March from JFK to Ams. Lets hope theres light at the end of the tunnel then....
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Old Jan 20, 2021, 11:48 am
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Originally Posted by Thino
Pffff, just booked some flights end of March from JFK to Ams. Let’s hope there’s light at the end of the tunnel then....
The tunnel exit just collapsed. Train will crash slamming into the stones.
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Old Jan 20, 2021, 11:52 am
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Originally Posted by Dieuwer
Two months to go until the elections. Then we will see how insane the Dutch voter is: more of the same, or finally had enough of it.
I wonder if PM Rutte and de Jonge (Health Secretary) will end up the same way as the de Witt brothers (the PM and his sidekick back in 1672): attacked on the street and brutally murdered.

Johan de Witt - Wikipedia
Rampjaar - Wikipedia
Murdered is quite an understatement for "being lynched and eaten by an angry mob"

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Old Jan 20, 2021, 12:13 pm
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Was on the phone with KL for 2,5 hours today to sort out payment with vouchers for flights in April (work related). My god the make it sooooo difficult to actually use the vouchers. After 2,5 hours the process will be to get all the vouchers refunded and pay for the new tickets. So now hopefully in April all fly, since now we paid a few thousand euro's for new tickets and won't see the almost 10K of vouchers that should be refunded to my corporate creditcard :|

So now that I spilled my drama for the day

I do have to say that they MAY cancel all flights, it's not for sure. And I strongly believe they will get an exemption....
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Old Jan 20, 2021, 12:31 pm
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So let’s see if I have this right. The Dutch government, who by the way just stepped down from their duties, implement very strict inbound travel restrictions that lack any supporting academic evidence. This to prevent the spread of covid-19 mutations that apparently already reside in the Netherlands since beginning December. While at the same time, that same Dutch government fails to have a proper vaccination program in place, in time, which only allows any residing viruses to continue to spread. As a result, KLM has no other choice than to cancel all long haul and some short haul routes, resulting in more losses and a potential bancruptcy of this largely state owned company. Which, by the way, is the result of that same government that decided to increase its shares in KLM not such a long time ago. And that same government that rescued KLM earlier this year by lending large amounts of money.

It all seems a bit mad.
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