KLM and/or AMS Amsterdam Schiphol Airport - Latest news 2023

[sn26567]

KLM and/or AMS Amsterdam Schiphol Airport - Latest news 2018
KLM and/or AMS Amsterdam Schiphol Airport - Latest news 2019
KLM and/or AMS Amsterdam Schiphol Airport - Latest news 2020
KLM and/or AMS Amsterdam Schiphol Airport - Latest news 2021
KLM and/or AMS Amsterdam Schiphol Airport - Latest news 2022

[Passenger]

Dick Benschop has resigned as CEO Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Reason: ongoing chaos at the Security check, causing hundreds of passengers daily missing their flight, even when they arrive at the airport 4 hours before departure:
https://www.aviation24.be/airports/amst ... elsewhere/

Though he's resigning, Benschop announced that AMS will issue new flight restrictions today. AMS Airport will most probably ask airlines to cancel flights.

Benschop remains CEO till his successor has been appointed.

Because of all that mess, Schiphol Airport has cancelled all official Happy New Year events.

[sn26567]

KLM Cityhopper is only flying six E195-E2 jets, with the remaining eight E2 on the ground due to lengthy inspections on the PW1900 engines.

[sn26567]

China Southern plans to resume Beijing – Amsterdam service on 26 March 2023, with A330-300.

[rwandan-flyer]

KLM quite optimistic about Africa. Despite the closures of the routes to Luanda, Windhoek and Mauritius due to the Covid (even if MRU was announced at the end of 2019 I thnk) the airline sees its reservations on the rise and also its capacities. KLM started Zanzibar service during the covid.

Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa are showing positive signs. No info about Uganda and Rwanda. EBB still served daily but via Kigali or Kilimanjaro and Kigali remains at 5-6 flights per week vs daily before Covid. Turkish Airlines (half of the flights operated in A330 instead of 100% of B737) and Egyptair (3 flights per week vs 2 flights per week before covid) are offering more capacity than before covid .

However, East Africa remains the airlines priority in Africa. They are talking about the improvement of the product and a new fare structure

https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/business/20 ... -capacity/

I would be curious to see which planes will fly within 2 years to, Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda. KLM will retire all its A330s by 2025. The A330-300s should all leave the fleet this year according to ATDB. Even if on the KLM website, I still see Kigali Amsterdam flights operated by A330-300s for the beginning of 2024. With the departure of the A330-300s, there will only be 6 A330-200s (( PH-AOB / AOC stil flying))for 11 destinations even if some routes are tagged ( if I'm not mistaken):

Montreal, Edmonton, Washington, Ryadh, Damman, Kigali / Entebbe, Muscat, Doha, Barhain, Kuwait City. It's tight.

Logic would dictate that it should be the 787-9s, which have within 2 more seats than the A330-300s. The 787-10 and B777-200ER (those fitted with 316 seats) can probably fly to Entebbe, Lagos and Kigali. KLM sent its B777-200ER to Kigali at the end of 2020 (flights operated via Dar Es Salaam https://www.airplane-pictures.net/photo ... 777-200er/). No chance in my opinion to see the 777-300ER (probably to Lagos ? )

[Passenger]

The Dutch Police (Koninklijke Marechaussee) has arrested a man with a crossbow at the AMS Railway station. An employee from the railway company (NS Nederlandse Spoorwegen) had disarmed the man just before he was arrested.

https://twitter.com/Marechaussee/status ... 0882468867

[Passenger]

Court case in Haarlem tomorrow (21/03): IATA and 5 airlines (Corendon, Delta, easyJet, KLM and TUI) against Schiphol Airport.
The airlines demand that Schiphol Airport cancels its plan to limit the maximal number of movements from 500.000 to 440.000 as from 2023/2024.

[rwandan-flyer]

For a biggest part of April, KLM will operate flights to Kigali via Dar Es Salaam or Zanzibar in the A330-200. Kigali will therefore be terminator service, but I don't know if the crews will sleep in Kigali or if the crew change will take place in Tanzania. It seems to me that this was the case when KLM had made few flights to Kigali via Kilimanjaro in 2014. The crews slept in Kigali

Also curious because the A330-200s doesn't serve to DAR and ZNZ, KLM uses B787s or B777s. Are there many KLM 787s and 777s in maintenance or deployed to other routes? AMS KGL will be operated 5 flights per week and will return to 6 flights per week at the end of April again via Entebbe.

Entebbe will be served exclusively via Kilimanjaro. This was the case this winter but only a few times a week. Others flights were operated via Kigali

There will be lots of work in Kigali in the evening and at night (and on some days there is no flight to Mumbai)

[lumumba]

Schiphol will remove night flights I hope that finally they will remove night flights over the city of Brussels just that!

[Passenger]

Court case in Haarlem tomorrow (21/03): IATA and 5 airlines (Corendon, Delta, easyJet, KLM and TUI) against Schiphol Airport.
The airlines demand that Schiphol Airport cancels its plan to limit the maximal number of movements from 500.000 to 440.000 as from 2023/2024.

The judge has ruled in favour of the airlines.
Reduction from 500.000 to 440.000 is dismissed.

[Passenger]

The Dutch Consumer and Markets Authority (ACM) has ruled twice in favour of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in cases brought up by airlines.

First complaint by airlines was for an increase in tariffs to cover the Covid-19 losses. "The two majority shareholders from AMS are the City of Amsterdam and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, so it's fair to send the bill to the airport users only, and not to all Dutch taxpayers", ACM says:
https://www.acm.nl/nl/publicaties/acm-w ... n-schiphol

Second case was for an increase in tariffs to avoid another series of long queues like during recent months. ACM estimates that the tariff increase will help the airport for that matter:
https://www.acm.nl/nl/publicaties/acm-w ... chiphol-af

[Passenger]

Major railways IT system failure in the Netherlands: no trains to/from Amsterdam Central and Amsterdam Schiphol since Sunday evening. Ongoing failure on Monday morning.

https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/8863739 ... de-storing

[Passenger]

Major railways IT system failure in the Netherlands: no trains to/from Amsterdam Central and Amsterdam Schiphol since Sunday evening. Ongoing failure on Monday morning.

https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/8863739 ... de-storing

Solved by 09h a.m.
Schedule disruptions will last for a few more hours.

[rwandan-flyer]

Inauguration of the Africa headquarters of the Air France KLM group. This center is based in Nairobi and will cover Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Djibouti, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.

The group also said that Africa represents its 5th largest market (out of the 12 regional centers in the group) behind North America, China, Japan and South Korea. https://www.citizen.digital/business/ai ... on-n322293

The group plans to expand in Africa, by adding capacity to destinations already served (such as Johannesburg, which will increase to 13 flights per week this summer with Air France). We can also imagine the opening of new destinations.

No news about Maputo which was to open last year. The choices are still limited. In Southern Africa, we can forget Lusaka, Harare, Windhoek closed by KLM. Luanda will in my opinion remain served only by Air France (KLM closed its route during the covid).

In West Africa there is also fairly limited development, except for the reopening of routes to Monrovia by AF or KLM or KLM to Freetown already served by AF. Port Harcourt seems to be permanently closed by Air France.

Cape Verde, but I have the feeling that the group is happy to send their subsidiary LCC: Transavia.

There is East Africa. Entebbe and Bujumbura for Air France could be interesting. Kigali with AF I don't really believe it with RwandAir, that will serve Paris even if however France and Rwanda have modified their traffic rights agreements. And KLM serves Kigali 6 times a week

[Passenger]

Article from Aviation24.be, 9th June 2023:

Dutch Labour Inspectorate wants to impose penalty on Amsterdam Schiphol baggage handlers
The Dutch Labour Inspectorate has issued an intention to impose penalty payments on six baggage handlers at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. During a recent inspection, it was found that the handlers did not comply with the requirement to use tools for baggage handling that was imposed on them in March.

The penalty amounts vary for each handler, with the highest being €65,000 per month. The inspectors discovered that the lifting aids were either absent or not being used, posing a risk to the health and safety of the employees.

The intention of penalty payments serves as a notification, and the handlers have 15 days to provide their views on the matter. The aim of enforcement is to ensure that improvements are made and to avoid a situation where responsibility is shifted between the airport and the handlers, ultimately neglecting the well-being of the workers.
https://www.aviation24.be/airports/amst ... -handlers/

Today (05th Sept 2023), the Labour Inspectorate has announced that improvement at AMS is not good enough. So penalties will follow, the authority announces:
https://www.nlarbeidsinspectie.nl/actue ... n-schiphol
(Dutch only)

[nordikcam]

I just saw a KLM Airbus A330 at Brussels Airport (PH-AKD). What was he doing there? Regular flight? I guess it was not diverted...

[sn26567]

I just saw a KLM Airbus A330 at Brussels Airport (PH-AKD). What was he doing there? Regular flight? I guess it was not diverted...

FR24 tells us that the aircraft arrived from AMS on 15 Dec at 10:06 as KL9871 and departed to AMS on 16 Dec at 20:13 as KL9872. Flight numbers suggest a ferry flight. It might have come to BRU for a technical reason (a wild guess on my part).

[LJ]

The first of 44 Transavia NEOs arrived today at AMS. The aircraft (PH-YHZ, A321NEO) is leased and will be one of the 6 A321NEOs flying this year.