Amsterdam’s Schiphol is to end its cap on departing passengers from the start of the summer 2023 season from late March.
The Netherlands hub airport, which has imposed a cap on passenger numbers during the summer 2022 and winter 2022-23 seasons due to a lack of staff, said the cap would no longer be necessary from 26 March.
But Schiphol also warned that “additional effort will be required from all parties concerned at several peak moments, especially in the morning, in order to prevent excessively long queues and delays in processing”.
The airport said it would be holding talks with airlines, ground handlers and the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, which operates passport control, to “resolve” this potential issue.
Ruud Sondag, CEO of Schiphol, said: “I am pleased for our travellers, employees and airlines with the progress we have collectively made. Things are looking good heading towards the May holidays.
“From the start of the 2023 season at the end of March, we are going to scale up further in a responsible and phased manner, in the interest of those travellers, employees and airlines.
“We are not going to take any risks. We want to once again offer the quality and certainty that everyone can expect of Schiphol. That's why we are working with our partners at the airport to tackle the remaining bottlenecks as we head towards the May holidays and beyond.”
Schiphol’s future growth could be impacted later this year by the Dutch government’s plan to reduce the number of flights permitted from the airport as part of a policy aimed at reducing noise and air pollution. The move to restrict flights to 440,000 per year is expected to come into effect in November 2023.