Air India had returned to Amsterdam recently, having launched 4x weekly flights between Delhi and Amsterdam in June 2023. And now, they will have to shut this flight due to the lack of slots at Amsterdam Schiphol.
Air India 787-8
Air India to discontinue Amsterdam operations in W23
At the turn of the Northern Winter schedule in October 2023, the Air India operations between Delhi and Amsterdam no longer show up. Here is a screenshot showing the last flight for sale on Friday, October 27, 2023. October 29, 2023, will mark the start of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Winter Season 2023/2024, which will continue through March 30, 2024.
According to sources, Air India will have to stop these flights due to their inability to gain sufficient slots at AMS. Per filings made by Airport Coordination Netherlands (ACNL), the slot coordinator for Schiphol and other Netherlands airports, during the Summer 2023 season, Amsterdam had a total of 303,000 slots available. For the winter season, the number has been reduced to 189,515.
ACNL’s filings also show that the waitlist for Amsterdam slots numbered 22,052, with 18,640 of those slots being requested for passenger services. Cargo operators requested the remaining 3,412 slots. It is very amusing that JetBlue, which has just launched flights to Amsterdam, has managed to secure twice-daily slots in Amsterdam.
There could still be a slim chance that Air India turns this around and the flight gets an extension.
Bottomline
Air India seems to have lost its operations in Amsterdam in October 2023 due to reduced operations in Amsterdam, which has caused the airline to stop selling the flights. Unfortunately, the flight was only launched in June 2023, so it will be a short-lived five-month operation for Air India.
What do you make of Air India’s short-lived operations in Amsterdam?
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India should also reconsider KLM slots to DEL. Just see how fast Air India will get the slots. KLM will regain its monopoly on this route and mint money.
Jetblue was trying to scare AMS and KL/DL so that’s probably how they got slots. KL and DL have a joint venture and they didn’t want to lose that. So Jetblue was going to get slots one way or another.
Air India would have to go to their government and ask for help or retaliatory measures to pressure AMS or KL to give up a slot. We’ll see what happens.