The Schiphol Airport has announced that it plans to operate more than 483,000 flights in the upcoming year.
The relevant authorities added that the airport plans on offering greater capacity, which would stand at 60%.
Another option that the airport is hoping to explore is to offer a total of 293,000 flights in the summer months, specifically from April to October.
Negotiations
This decision from the Schiphol Airport was announced after weeks of negotiations between various airlines operating there, the slot coordinator, and The Ministry Of Infrastructure And Water Management (I&W).
Together, the three parties also decided to drop the previously made decision to reduce the number of operated flights.
The adjustments made by the airport were prompted by the suspension of the experimental scheme on the 14th of November by the Minister of I&W.
After receiving the directive from the minister, the airport has various extensive meetings with the Air Traffic Control in the Netherlands, specifically the LVNL.
It also entered several discussions with Customs and the Royal Netherlands Marechausee for the stability and safety of operations.
Flights
Consequently, the total number of flights that are expected to operate in 2024 will be a total of 293,000, a 4.6% increase from the initial decision to operate around 280,000 flights.
The earlier projections made by the relevant authorities in Schiphol were based on the yearly total of 460,000 flights, and this was the number established in the experimental scheme.
Meanwhile, the airport expected around 433,000 flights to be operated in the current calendar year.
On this note, the Executive Director of Operations at Royal Schiphol Group, Patricia Vitalis, highlighted the combined effort required to better the operational capacity.
In her words, the busy and peak seasons need major effort from the aviation sector, as a whole, along with the relevant government partners.
She added that it is important for all departments and relevant stakeholders of the airport to collaborate to offer travelers a safe and pleasant journey.
Peak times
In order to effectively manage peak time, Schiphol has joined hands with airlines to implement voluntary reductions in the number of flights in the given time periods.
The independent slot coordinator has taken on the responsibility to lead discussions on how these times can be managers, hoping that airlines will make voluntary contributions.
However, if needed, obligations are likely to be imposed to ensure that agreements are thoroughly fulfilled.
Analysis has also been conducted in recent weeks, which pointed toward various challenges posed by peaks in the mornings.
This entails that numerous large aircraft carrying a significant number of passengers would arrive at the same time.
As a result, the airport would have to deal with long waiting queues and various operational issues.
Consequently, Schiphol is planning on adding to this pressure by cutting down on its capacity in one of the morning peaks.
Thus, the number of arrivals in an hour will go from 68 to 65.
Discussions for the winter season, which starts in April and ends in October, will also be taking place sometime in the early months of 2024.
