Amsterdam Cut JetBlue’s Summer Flights. But Are They Actually Going Away?

03.11.2023 - 23:17 / afar.com / John F.Kennedy

It’s been a busy week for JetBlue.

Not only is the Queens, New York-based airline facing off against the U.S. government in a federal antitrust trial regarding its proposed merger with Spirit, it’s also enmeshed in some transatlantic drama surrounding the elimination of its summer slots at Amsterdam Schiphol, one of Europe’s largest hubs.

In August, JetBlue launched its first routes to the Netherlands with nonstop service from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), followed by service from Boston Logan International Airport in September. Now, the airline is among 24 newcomers at Schiphol that were recently denied takeoff and landing rights for summer 2024 by Airport Coordination Netherlands (ACNL), which controls Schiphol’s slots, ACNL managing director Hugo Thomassen confirmed to AFAR.

Airlines were told of ACNL’s new restrictions on November 2, which is the latest development in an ongoing controversy around the Dutch government’s continuing efforts to curb traffic, emissions, and noise at Schiphol.

For now, JetBlue’s new routes from JFK and Boston to Amsterdam are still up and running—at least until the summer high season. But JetBlue’s summer expulsion from Schiphol doesn’t exactly bode well for international travelers hoping to take advantage of the newly added flights between the East Coast and Amsterdam during the high travel season. Up until JetBlue launched its new Boston and New York service to Schiphol, legacy carriers Delta, KLM, and Air France have largely dominated those routes.

“I haven’t seen any analysis on it, but it will almost certainly lead to less choice and fewer flights and less competitiveness and higher fares,” says James Pearson, routes analyst for Simple Flying, a U.K.-based aviation site.

Not surprisingly, JetBlue is pushing back against ACNL’s restrictions—and, according to the U.S. government, its protests have merit. In September, the airline filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) against the Netherlands and the European Union over the Dutch government’s planned cuts at Schiphol, which have received widespread media attention over the last year, claiming they violate the U.S.-EU Air Transport Agreement. It added an additional filing in late October requesting the DOT to ban KLM, the flag carrier of the Netherlands, from JFK if the proposed curbs were implemented, Reuters and other media outlets reported.

On November 3, the DOT issued an order stating that Netherlands government “has imposed an unjustifiable and unreasonable restriction on access of an air carrier to the U.S.-Amsterdam market. We find that this practice, in the totality of the circumstances presented, constitutes violations of the U.S.-EU Agreement, and we