Market News

BY April Roach and Siddharth Philip, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- Schiphol Airport’s Dick Benschop is stepping down as chief executive of the Dutch hub as the airport continues to struggle with long lines and flight cancelations caused by a staffing shortage.

Benschop informed Royal Schiphol Group NV’s supervisory board on Wednesday that he is resigning from his role as president-director and chief executive. Benschop will stay on in his position until the board is able to find a successor, the airport operator said in statement on Thursday.

“There is a lot of attention and also criticism for the way in which Schiphol tackles the problems and for my responsibility as CEO,” said Benschop, adding the decision was his own. “I do not want the attention for my person to become an obstacle for Schiphol.”

Ahead of the busy summer season, the home base for Air France-KLM’s Dutch arm was one of the first airports in Europe to limit capacity as it struggled to ramp up from virtually no travel during the pandemic. 

Other airports followed. London’s Heathrow airport, which was Europe’s busiest pre-pandemic, said it would keep its 100,000 a day limit on departing passengers until the end of October, and in July warned that caps could remain in place for another year.

Schiphol pledged in May to recruit more workers and optimize passenger flows in a bid to reduce waits that have extended to several hours. The Amsterdam-based airport asked a number of airlines to cancel flights on Monday as lower numbers of security workers led to long waiting times for travelers.