Staff shortages exacerbated by a strike have caused huge delays at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport during the holiday season. The airport has now asked airlines to reduce the number of passengers by cutting flights.
The airport was unable to deal with the large numbers of passengers following an unannounced strike by baggage handlersImage: Ramon van Flymen/ANP/picture alliance
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Amsterdam's Schiphol airport has written to airlines asking them to cancel flights as it deals with overcrowding and flight delays, Dutch media reported on Thursday.
The request involved asking airlines to cancel some of their flights for the coming weekend so as to avoid a collapse in the service as was seen the previous weekend.
It also requested the airlines stop making new bookings for the week of May 2 to 8.
Istanbul opened its new airport in 2018, which Turkey says is the biggest in the world. But what is it up against? DW looks at its rivals around the globe.
Image: Presseabteilung Igairport
Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, Atlanta, US
When it comes to passenger numbers, no airport can measure up to the one in Atlanta. Almost 104 million people passed through Hartsfield-Jackson air-traffic hub in 2017, according to data provided by airport association ACI. No other airport has managed to break 100 million. This makes Hartsfield-Jackson number one on our list.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/D. Goldman
Beijing Capital International Airport, China
China has its own favorite: Beijing Capital International Airport ranks second in the number of passengers, welcoming 95.8 million people in 2017. The air-traffic infrastructure was built up ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games. UK star architect Norman Foster designed a new, sprawling terminal for the event.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Reynolds
Dubai International Airport
In 2017, Dubai's airport welcomed over 88 million passengers. Almost all of them were non-Arabs — as many as 87.72 million. Many of them apparently appreciate Dubai International for its almost legendary reputation for shopping.
Image: Reuters/A. Mohammad
Tokyo Haneda Airport, Japan
Alas, the Japanese capital is not in the top three, but its airport still boasts 85.4 million visitors per year, enough for a solid fourth place in our ranking.
Image: AFP/Getty Images/K. Nogi
Los Angeles International Airport, US
If you go on vacation to California, chances are you will land at Los Angeles International Airport, better known as the LAX in America. The flow of passengers does not quite measure up to the Atlanta airport, but it still had over 85.5 million visitors last year.
Image: picture alliance/Markus Mainka
O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, US
Even in Chicago, there is no rest from fans for German football star Bastian Schweinsteiger. The former Bayern Munich and Manchester United midfielder now plays for Chicago Fire, and frequently flies through O'Hare. Schweinsteiger is only one of 79.81 million passengers who go through the Chicago hub, which is named after an American WWII pilot.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/T. Shen
London Heathrow, UK
London boasts three airports, the largest and most well known of which is Heathrow. It services just over 78 million passengers per year. And it manages all that with just two runways.
Image: Getty Images/D. Kitwood
Hong Kong International Airport, China
You don't have to be in a plane to sneak a good look at Hong Kong's competitor, called Chek Lap Kok Airport locally. The compound is similarly impressive from a cable car as it may have been for the 72.67 million passengers who travelled through it in 2017. Hong Kong, or "fragrant harbor" in English, is built on reclaimed land on the island of Chek Lap Kok in the South China Sea.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/X. Yun
Shanghai Pudong International Airport, China
Safety first! One of Shanghai's two airports ranks just behind Hong Kong's. Pudong International Airport served 70 million passengers in 2017. This marks a slight drop from the year before, but cargo flights picked up by over 11 percent, according to ACI.
Image: picture-alliance/Imaginechina
Paris-Charles de Gaulle, France
The Paris airport named after President de Gaulle, also known as Roissy airport, comes in at number 10 on our list of busiest air-traffic hubs. Last year, it welcomed 69.47 million passengers. But those figures are not everything in an airport ranking; there are also parameters such as the amount of goods transported, the size, the number of terminals and many more.
Image: AP
Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, Germany
And then there is the amount of time it takes to actually build an airport. In that respect, the Germans might well be No. 1. Perhaps it's simply a question of definition: The nine years that have so far passed since construction began could be seen as evidence of thoroughness.
Image: DW/W. Szymanski
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Crowding chaos
"This is an annoying but necessary measure to reduce the number of passengers," the airport said to Reuters in a written statement.
The airport also wrote in a letter to airlines that it had no short-term solution for the long queues, Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported.
Dozens of flights had to be canceled over the weekend as the baggage strike began. It also coincided with the beginning of the school holidays.
Thousands of people were left waiting, and others were told not to drive to the airport. It took days for the flights to be processed.
Passengers on Thursday were still left waiting for hours in lines as the airport struggled to deal with an increase in customers but not enough staff for handling baggage or passport control.
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Airlines angry
De Telegraaf reported that several airlines had said they would not cancel any flights and that the companies were furious with Schiphol's management.
The airline KLM, the Dutch branch of Air France-KLM, was expecting to cancel some of its flights on Friday, Dutch news agency ANP reported.
Schiphol could not say how many flights would be affected or how many passengers it would be able to service.
While the airport is searching for a short-term solution by reducing the passenger load, the long-term solution will require the hiring of staff to fill in the empty positions from security to parking staff.
