KQ Request for Daily Flights to Schiphol Airport Rejected

Kenya Airways will have to deal with slow revenue growth on the European Union route after the Dutch aviation regulator denied the Kenyan carrier permission to fly daily to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

KQ, the national carrier’s international code, currently flies to Schiphol five times per week. It applied in October of last year to fly daily to the destination in order to increase its revenue.

However, the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate of the Netherlands declined the request, citing the country’s continued expansion of outbound passenger limits from the airport.

In June of last year, Amsterdam limited the number of passengers that the national carrier could carry on each flight from Schiphol to Nairobi to 78 percent of its capacity.

The decision implied that KQ and other carriers would not be permitted to operate at full capacity out of Schiphol.

“We submitted the Amsterdam slots request in October 2022 for seven frequencies effective summer (March 26, 2023). We followed up last November and so far they have declined the seven and only approved five weekly flights,” Kenya Airways CEO Allan Kilavuka.

Europe was the airline’s second-highest revenue earner in 2021, accounting for Sh11.3 billion.

Heathrow and Schiphol airports in London are the busiest in Europe, with airlines using them as transit hubs to other parts of the world.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and airlines such as KLM have vowed to sue the Dutch government over the restrictions.

Schiphol Airport is already limited to 500,000 flights per year. According to IATA, the government’s decree would reduce Schiphol connectivity to 460,000 flights beginning in November 2023.

“The Netherlands is handicapping its economy by destroying connectivity. And it is doing it in contravention of EU law and its international obligations,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.

“The dangerous precedent that this illegal approach creates left no choice but to challenge them in court,” he said.

The Schiphol restrictions come at a time when major European airports have been grappling with a sharp increase in the number of passengers due to a labour shortage, as airlines and airports struggle to recruit back after cutting jobs at the peak of Covid-19 in 2020.