Under the guise of “noise and environmental protection”, the Dutch government wants to limit the number of take-off and landing options at Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport. A transatlantic diplomatic dispute is now brewing.

The background is that Jetblue has not been allocated any slots for the summer of 2024. You have no historical rights, so you were no longer taken into account because of the reduction. KLM also has to give up some frequencies because the top dog also has it There will be fewer take-off and landing rights available in the future.

Jetblue wants the expulsion But he didn't let it go and has already filed an appeal. In addition, the US Department of Transportation has requested that the Air France-KLM group be sanctioned because, from Jetblue's perspective, the Dutch government would be violating existing aviation agreements.

Initially the protest was successful because KLM is to be sanctioned with further bureaucratic hurdles in the future. Specifically, the carrier must have the flight plans approved - despite the Openskies agreement. It cannot be ruled out that the Americans will simply reject one or the other frequency. Jetblue actually wants to have the entire Air France-KLM group banned from New York-JFK out of “revenge”, but it hasn’t come to that (yet).

But that's not all: Jetblue has announced that it will take both the Netherlands and the European Commission to court. The latter is accused of not adequately monitoring compliance with air transport agreements and of allowing the Dutch government to violate them.

The US carrier is by no means the only company taking legal action against the planned reduction in capacity at Schiphol. Several industry associations are suing together. Previously, a case led by KLM failed in the second instance because an appeal court in Amsterdam rejected it.