KLM, the Dutch flag carrier, is trying to get some of its customers off the plane and onto trains, mainly so it can save flight slots at crowded Schiphol Airport for longer-distance flights.
One target route: Amsterdam to Brussels, a 45-minute flight that KLM flies five times a day, carrying over a quarter million passengers last year. Over the summer, the airline launched a ‘fly responsibly’ campaign, and the Dutch Parliament actually asked the airline to drop the route.
Unlike some super-short flights between remote islands, where there’s no other option, there’s frequent train service between the two capitals, and most of the people on the flights are either finishing or beginning a flight from Schiphol, which has connections to over 200 cities and many trans-Atlantic flights.
Another route that’s under some pressure for reduced flying is one of Europe’s busiest, Amsterdam to London. With direct Eurostar service from England to the Netherlands now in place, and direct service in the other direction scheduled soon, that route may thin out as the rail time is not much different than the flying time once you add in airport transportation and waiting.
