KLM is to relaunch flights between Amsterdam and Southampton from August 31.
But rather than a route resumption as a result of Covid-19, the Dutch carrier has decided to re-enter the route following Flybe’s collapse.
I say “re-enter” because KLM was already operating the route until March 30 last year when it decided to suspend operations from Southampton.
Many of our readers, especially those along the South Coast, were disappointed by KLM’s decision – see reader comments on the above piece.
At the time KLM cited commercial reasons for the suspension. It also blamed slot issues at its Schiphol base.
But aviation is constantly changing and, in early 2019, who could have forecast that the industry would be brought to its knees by a pandemic one year later.
One effect of Covid-19 has been to free up slots at major airports which are currently a fraction of the traffic they were handling before.
Schedules are as follows:
- KL919 departing Amsterdam at 1635, arriving into Southampton at 1645
- KL920 departing Southampton at 1720, arriving into Amsterdam at 1935
Granted the schedules are not perfect, especially if making a connection, but at least it’s a start.
KLM is deploying an Embraer 175 configured for economy and business class, and flights are now bookable through KLM’s website.
In other news, the delayed launch of the carrier’s service between Amsterdam and Cork will now go ahead on August 3.
The route had been scheduled to start on March 30, but this was postponed due to the onset of Covid-19.
The daily service will operate as follows:
- KL1085 departing Amsterdam at 1205, arriving into Cork at 1255
- KL1086 departing Cork at 1325, arriving into Amsterdam at 1610
