Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport has promised to compensate thousands of passengers who missed their flights due to giant queues at the airport’s security checkpoints.
The airport said it was ready to pay the bills, which, according to experts, will amount to hundreds of millions of euros. The compensation applies to passengers who arrived at the airport on time for flights between April 23 and August 11, 2022, but missed their flights due to excessively long waiting times at security checkpoints.
Schiphol promised to cover a wide range of expenses, including surcharges related to rebooking flights, organizing alternative travel, and living expenses. The airport management has not yet named the amount that, according to its expectations, the compensation scheme will cost. But you can guess. The number of passengers who missed their flights for three and a half months is in the thousands, and if all of them apply for compensation, one million Euros will not be enough.
“A lot of people were looking forward to their holidays abroad, especially after two years of COVID-19. We are very sorry that some people missed their flights due to long queues at security. They had to miss all or part of their holiday and we sympathize with them,” said Schiphol CEO Dick Benschop.
However, the airport did not decide on the multimillion-dollar losses. He only acted after a popular TV program detailed the problems of tourists at the end of July. The editors threatened to file a lawsuit against Schiphol if he did not promise to reimburse the costs associated with missed flights.
Passengers who want to be reimbursed for expenses related to the airport’s summer chaos will have to submit applications by September 30.