On the first nonstop flight from New York to Amsterdam at the end of August this year, JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes stated that he was not worried about the slots from Schiphol for summer 2024. In the meantime, the American airline has called in the help of the US Department of Transport. During a press conference at Schiphol, Hayes, who had flown in from New York on the first flight, acknowledged that JetBlue has slots for flights at Schiphol through next winter, but not yet before the summer of 2024. However, he stated that he was confident that those take-off and landing rights would be there. ‘Otherwise, we wouldn’t be investing so much in these routes.’ In the meantime, that doesn’t seem nearly certain. Schiphol has to shrink and newcomers such as JetBlue are in danger of losing out. And that while JetBlue recently enthusiastically started two scheduled services from New York, JFK and Boston to Schiphol. Normally, slots would not be a problem, were it not for the fact that the government is aiming for a reduction in Schiphol from 2024 onwards. According to the current plans (the experimental scheme, ed.), 460,000 flight movements will be allowed to take place at Schiphol next year. That is much less than the current ceiling of 500,000 take-offs and landings. That number should be further reduced to 440,000 per year by 2025. This shrinkage threatens to be at the expense of newcomers such as JetBlue. The non-allocation of slots violates the Open Skies agreement between the US and the EU, which regulates that airlines have free access to each other’s markets, according to JetBlue. The American company doubts whether bilateral consultations between the Netherlands and the US will provide a solution in time. JetBlue even suggests that there is a case of stalling, so that it will soon be too late to allocate slots. Should JetBlue miss out on the summer slots for 2024, the airline is calling for countermeasures. In that case, the U.S. Department of Transportation could revoke KLM’s slots at New York JFK. Photo: Robin Hayes (CEO of JetBlue) and Ruud Sondag (CEO of Schiphol Airport).
