A costly dispute is brewing between Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and its largest customer, KLM. The airline is not happy about the fact that capacity is severely reduced due to a lack of staff and wants to claim any loss of earnings from the airport.

According to the current status, around 6 seats will have to be taken out of production every day between July 2022, 28 and August 2022, 13.500. As the largest provider, this hits KLM particularly hard and is also a financial burden. The carrier categorically rejects the reduction in capacity and considers this to be "extremely disadvantageous".

“It should be a one-off, short-term solution. KLM finds it unacceptable that the users of the airport structurally have to bear the burden of the capacity problems at Schiphol," the company said in a statement. “KLM has joined efforts to resolve the issue in the interest of passengers and safety at the airport. We have done this, among other things, by complying with requests from Schiphol to cancel flights and voluntarily slow down ticket sales, spread flights throughout the day, extend connection times, etc."

The Dutch airline is currently examining the extent to which additional costs and loss of earnings resulting from the situation at Schiphol can be claimed from the airport. In the wake of the corona pandemic, Amsterdam Airport has increased fees, in some cases sharply, so that the current staff shortage, which is the trigger for the chaos, could be even more sour for the airlines.