These are heydays for regional airports. Dutch people who go on holiday by plane more often choose a regional airport in the Netherlands, Belgium or Germany. Staff shortages, strikes and the cancellation of flights are a must for regional airports.

Vacations will look unexpectedly different for many travelers in the coming months. Twelve diverted aircraft from TUI fly were good for Ostend airport last Monday. After the announcement of the strike in Brussels, the company immediately started moving flights and looking for transfers to Ostend. In the end, twelve flights departed from Ostend to various destinations with a total of 2.650 passengers. Airline TUI Fly Belgium diverted a large part of its flights to the regional airports of Ostend, Antwerp and Liège. 

rebooking

Regional airports such as Rotterdam, Eindhoven and Maastricht are also popular. Travel organization Sunweb notices that more and more travelers are booking a holiday from the airports of Brussels, Düsseldorf or Cologne-Bonn, among others. The role of regional airports is becoming increasingly important as chaos at Schiphol continues. Strikes in Brussels are the result of Antwerp and Ostend doing good business.

Many holidaymakers already voluntarily move to regional airports, which in turn indicate that they can still have a few more flights. Maastricht Airport can take over a few dozen of these and Groningen Airport Eelde as well. Both airports have spare capacity to handle additional flights. Regional airports must also play a much more important role in the future than they do now. 

If you have booked a trip for next summer and fly from Schiphol, it remains to be seen whether you can fly from Amsterdam. The airport announced last week that the flights of hundreds of thousands of people will be cancelled. They also face challenges at Eindhoven Airport. The airport has been shut down for almost two years due to corona and many employees have started looking for another job, forced or voluntarily.