Amsterdam Airport Is Leading The Air Travel Chaos In Europe

Due to shortages of staff and general travel demands, there has been a bit of chaos recently with air travel. The hub of this chaos, according to Travel analysis company, ForwardKeys, is Amsterdam, followed closely behind by The United Kingdom then Sweden and Germany

From flight delays, canceled flights, lost luggage and long lines, there has been a general reduction of flight capacity worldwide. At the center of all these delays is Europe, specifically bad in Amsterdam

Taking many factors into consideration and comparing July and August seat availability to that of May, they found a total capacity reduction of the world was 14.3 million seats. Whereas the 4% of reduction overall may not seem like a lot, ForwardKeys broke it down further with actual number of seats in Europe, Asia Pacific, The Americas and Africa & The Middle East, shown below.

• Europe: 5% reduction, 9 million seats lost
• Asia Pacific: 10% reduction, 4.6 million seats lost
• The Americas: 2% reduction, 1 million seats lost
• Africa & The Middle East: 1% Increase, 255K seats gained

According to their analysis, The Netherlands experienced an 8% capacity reduction, while The United Kingdom saw a 7% reduction. Sweden and Germany followed, with reductions of 7% and 6%, respectively.

In terms of cities in Europe who experience the most capacity reduction, topping the list (based on percentage not seats lost is Amsterdam: 11% reduction and 541K seats lost with London: 8% reduction and 1.1 million Seats Lost in second and Milan 8% reduction and 259K seats lost rounding out the top three.

Amsterdam’s Airport Schiphol is the only large airport in Amsterdam and back in June the lines were so long they wrapped around the building. As mentioned prior in regard to shortages, specifically shortages in the security department led for extremely long wait times.

To deal with the chaos, they decided to limit flights and it is uncertain when the cap will be lifted. Regardless of this temporary restriction, the airport plans to decrease flights by 20% from November 2023 compared to its pre-pandemic figures.