KLM urges Dutch hub to end flight cap early, plans fleet revamp

The Dutch arm of Air France-KLM will press Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport to drop a capacity cap in December rather than extend it through March as planned, CEO Marjan Rintel said. Schiphol needs to look at all options to address a labor shortage that prompted the curbs, including modifying a rostering system for security staff that’s efficient but unpopular, Rintel said in an interview Wednesday. “They need to take some tough decisions to solve these issues,” the CEO said at the World Aviation Festival in Amsterdam, adding that she will “push” outgoing Schiphol counterpart Dick Benschop and his successor to end the cap as soon as it comes up for review in December. KLM was forced to extend a 20% reduction in capacity into the winter schedule after Schiphol said last month that the cap on departing passengers may not be lifted until April. The carrier is already facing damages of more than 100m euros ($99.6m) linked to the impact of the restrictions over the summer months, when it was unable to fully tap rebounding demand. Benschop said that the airport has endured “severe operational issues” but that it’s seen improvement since putting an action plan into place. Rintel said Schiphol’s cap appears especially extreme after London Heathrow confirmed this week that its curbs will go at the end of this month as a labor shortage eases and people fly less during the low season for travel. The UK hub said ad hoc restrictions may be imposed at the very busiest periods.<br/>