More curbs to air traffic in London and Amsterdam
Rob North and Livvy Doherty, CNN
In the latest moves aimed at curbing air travel chaos, Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport has extended its summer passenger cap and British Airways has suspended short-haul ticket sales from London’s Heathrow Airport.
Schiphol Airport announced Tuesday it will be continuing its passenger cap through September and October.
The maximum number of passengers departing in September will be limited to 67,500, the airport said in a statement. That number will be increased to 69,500 per day in October.
Schiphol acknowledged this time period includes two weeks of autumn holidays and “therefore the expectation is that there will be an average of 3,500 too many local departing passengers.”
“Based on the capacity made available by Schiphol, the independent slot coordinator (ACNL) will consult with all airlines to ensure that the number of passengers is appropriate in relation to the security capacity,” the airport said.
The passenger cap was originally 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.
Passenger caps are also in play at London’s Heathrow Airport.
Last month, the airport announced a passenger limit of 100,000 departures per day until September 11.
British Airways announced Tuesday that it was suspending the sale of tickets on short-haul flights from Heathrow in response to the airport’s passenger cap.
In a statement BA said it will take “responsible action and limit the available fares on some Heathrow services to help maximise rebooking options for existing customers, given the restrictions imposed on us and the ongoing challenges facing the entire aviation industry.”
The flights affected will be short-haul only and sales are expected to resume on August 8.
The passenger cap introduced at Heathrow last month was aimed at a daily excess of 4,000 seats that was causing service to drop “to a level that is not acceptable,” CEO John Holland-Kaye said in announcing the move.
Heathrow Airport recently has experienced delays to about 40% of its flights, according to data from flight tracking site FlightAware. Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport has experienced a similar level of delays this summer.
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Top image: Travelers line up in the departure hall of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport on May 26, 2022. (Jeroen Jumelet/ANP/AFP/Getty Images)
