KLM

Just two weeks ago, KLM announced that it would be cutting three of its winter routes between Amsterdam and the United States as the Biden administration continued to do nothing to open up travel for most Europeans and as the Dutch government imposed new restrictions on US travelers. Now, following sudden and unexpected changes of heart by both governments, KLM has announced that two of those three routes will be operated after all...albeit a little later than planned.

With the United States government continuing to show no interest in loosening restrictions on travelers originating in various European countries, we're now seeing some counties in Europe retaliating and imposing considerably stricter measures on travelers visiting from the United States. Unsurprisingly, this is now starting to lead to route suspensions.

Last week, the government of the Netherlands voted to introduce new strict domestic restrictions on the movement of its citizens and, following that announcement, there were strong indications that the national airline, KLM, was set to suspend all international flights from last Friday.

Although it is yet to be confirmed by the airline, it is being widely reported that KLM will temporarily halt all long-haul operations from tomorrow, 22 January 2021, following the introduction of new travel restrictions by the government of the Netherlands.

In the last 24 hours, KLM has updated its schedules for winter 2020/21 and when you compare the services the airline plans to offer to the services offered pre-Covid, it doesn't make for pretty reading. Three US cities are set to lose service altogether, while even major partner hubs like Atlanta will be seeing reduced capacity.

KLM has recently updated its worldwide schedules and in the months of August and September, the European carrier will be increasing the number of fights it offers to select cities in the United States with some destinations getting twice as many flights as they're currently seeing.

If you travel with SkyTeam into and out of Europe with any kind of frequency there's a good chance that you spend quite a bit of time at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. Amsterdam is one of SkyTeam's major connecting hubs so the news that KLM is starting to open up its new Crowne Lounge at Schiphol will be music to the ears of a lot of flyers...and that fact that the lounge looks good will be a bonus.