JetBlue wants to fly to Amsterdam, but so far it’s finding no room at the inn at Amsterdam’s slot-restricted Schiphol Airport. It’s asking the U.S. government to step in and help it find some.
Schiphol is one of Europe’s busiest and most slot-restricted airports, and has been canceling vacant slots rather than reallocating them. JetBlue had asked for slots taken from Russia’s Aeroflot and then for slots opened when British regional carrier Flybe went under, but the airport turned them down.
The airline would like to fly to Amsterdam from its two hubs at New York and Boston. It will soon add flights from those two cities to Paris as well, its second European destination. It’s ordered a fleet of 321XLR planes for the service.
JetBlue is now asking the U.S. Department of Transportation to step in and force KLM, the dominant carrier at Schiphol, to give up some slots for JetBlue on grounds that since the Delta/KLM joint venture offers the only direct service to Amsterdam from New York and Boston, customers lack choice and prices stay high. The joint venture comes with antitrust immunity, although JetBlue is hoping DOT will be willing to challenge that.
