The “air havoc” that spoiled the rest of many European tourists last summer season threatens to last in Europe for at least another couple of years. At least as summer approaches, the problems are clearly getting worse: Europe's busiest airport is already canceling thousands of flights. We are talking about Amsterdam Schipol Airport, which limits the number of international flights operated from the airport, and affecting the next year 2024.
According to a statement from the Dutch government, the airport is reducing its annual number of flights from 500,000 to 460,000. True, they promise to “pardon” the current summer season: the reductions will take effect from November and will affect the winter 2023 schedule, as well as the summer 2024 schedule. The official reason is the introduction of a number of measures to reduce carbon emissions, as well as reduce noise levels. Unofficial – the continuation of the crisis in the airline industry.
Air carriers have already criticized this move in a joint statement issued by KLM Group, easyJet, TUI, Delta and Corendon. They recalled that Amsterdam Airport is one of the busiest in Europe, second only to London Heathrow Airport and Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
However, the authorities of the Netherlands are not the only ones who “cut the march.” For example, Lufthansa says it has had to “adjust its summer flight schedule” with more than 34,000 flights canceled this summer. The carrier's management frankly acknowledged the main problem for the shortage of personnel, which currently affects the aviation industry. Some flights were also canceled by Wizz Air.
Recall that last year European airports were overwhelmed by chaos: massive flight cancellations, huge queues at airports for many hours to take off, in which tourists who want to fly away for the holidays get stuck. The airport crisis has been triggered by airlines and airports laying off thousands of workers over the past 2 years when demand dropped during lockdowns and then scrambling to recruit and train replacements, European media experts say. Read the details at this link.
The airlines aggravated the chaos – the same one mentioned According to the German media, due to a lack of personnel, it canceled 900 flights in Germany and Europe at its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. Flight cancellations in July affect 5% of weekday flights on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Eurowings is also canceling several hundred flights in July alone, Swiss will reduce flights mainly from Zurich to Germany, but international flights will also be affected. Read more here.
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