Netherlands: Dutch Government wins court case enabling capacity cut at Schiphol Airport
"Air France-KLM Warns of Strategy Review on Schiphol Capacity Cut", 7 July 2023
Air France-KLM said it may be forced to adjust operations after the Dutch government won permission to curtail capacity at Amsterdam Schiphol, the main airport for the KLM subsidiary.
The number of flights at Schiphol airport can be scaled back between the end of the year and October 2024, an appeals court ruled Friday, revoking an earlier decision by a local court. The state has outlined plans to eventually cut Schiphol Airport’s annual flight capacity to 440,000 flights by 2024, equal to a 12% reduction.
The verdict is a loss for airlines including KLM, Delta Air Lines Inc, EasyJet Plc and the International Air Transport Association lobbying group, which has dubbed the Amsterdam airport the worst in the world because of what it sees as a disconnect between low performance and high fees...
“Air France-KLM Group will have no choice but to adjust its strategy to maintain its European market share within a global industry,” should the Dutch government enforced this reduction, according to a statement by the airline group...
The ruling comes three months after a court concluded that the government’s attempts to minimize noise by cutting the number of flights that can go in and out of Schiphol airport did not follow the correct procedures.
In its ruling, the court said that any fear by airlines of suffering serious damage as a result of the proposed measures was no reason to arrive at a different outcome.
The court ruled that the government’s proposed measures aren’t in conflict with the rules of national and European law, nor are they against “the general principles of good administration,” according to a statement...
Airlines and lobby groups maintain the reduction plan violates international regulations and inconveniences travelers...