Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport has promised to compensate thousands of passengers who missed their flights because of slow-moving lines at airport security checkpoints.
The airport has offered to foot the bill, which is likely to run to hundreds of millions of Euros, after a Dutch holiday complaints programme threatened to sue the airport operator.
The compensation scheme will cover passengers who arrived on time at the airport for flights between April 23 and August 11, 2022 but missed their flights because of excessively long wait times to get through security checkpoints.
Schiphol has promised to cover a slew of costs including charges associated with rebooking flights, alternative travel arrangements, and hotel costs. The airport did not immediately say how much it expected the compensation scheme to cost but thousands of passengers are likely to be covered and costs could quickly rack up.
“A lot of people have really been looking forward to their holidays abroad, especially after two years of COVID. We’re extremely sorry that some people have missed their flight due to the long security control queue,” commented Schiphol’s chief executive Dick Benschop.
“They’ve had to miss out on all or part of their holiday, and we really sympathise with them,” Benschop continued.
The airport only decided to act, however, after popular travel rights broadcast MAX Vakantieman covered the problems in-depth in a programme that aired in late July. The programme threatened to bring a lawsuit against Schiphol if it didn’t promise to reimburse costs associated with missed flights.
“We’re proud to have been able to contribute toward this solution through our action. The trial process is now over, as people are being compensated,” explained Jeanine Janssen from MAX Ombudsman.
Passengers who want to recover costs associated with Schiphol’s summer of travel chaos will have until September 30 to do so.
