Flights that are delayed, suddenly depart from a different airport, or are canceled. Or even arriving late for your flight. These are nightmare scenarios for the start of your vacation that could easily become reality in the coming period.
“If you have to go to Schiphol, you will face roadworks on all sides,” says a spokesperson for Rijkswaterstaat. Schiphol expects next Monday to be the busiest day of the summer vacation. Many travelers will have to find their way to the airport.
And that’s not easy. A lot of road work is done precisely during vacation time, because it is quieter than normal during that period. Anyone going to Schiphol should take into account an extra travel time of half an hour to an hour.
Schiphol advises travelers to come by public transport. But that can also be a challenge. According to Treinreiziger.nl, there are more malfunctions around Schiphol than anywhere else on the Dutch rail network. It happens a few times a week.
Once at Schiphol, you normally won’t face any major, unpleasant surprises. Threatening strikes by KLM’s ground staff are off the table for the time being. Trade union FNV has promised not to take action during the holidays. The union had already been overruled twice by the court.
KLM and Transavia say they are well prepared
KLM expects 6.4 million passengers this summer. “The May holiday went well and that is usually a harbinger for the summer,” says a spokesperson. The company plans to deploy French pilots on a small portion of flights for the first time this summer.
Although KLM has been part of Air France-KLM for more than twenty years, this has never happened before. But KLM has been struggling with a shortage of pilots for some time. Using French pilots should help a little with that.
At Transavia, the holiday airline par excellence, they have learned a lot from the past two years, when a lot went wrong. People had to be rebooked onto other flights, depart from other airports, or saw their flight canceled. According to the organization EUclaim, Transavia could have prevented more than a hundred cancellations last year.
“We are confident that things will go well this summer,” says a spokesperson for the company. “We have five reserve aircraft, including crew. That gives more air.” Transavia chose to announce the available offer for this summer later than usual.
According to the spokesperson, this should be the comeback year for Transavia. “The year in which we celebrate sixty years.”