The Board of Directors are currently in the midst of finding a successor for Benschop.

Following several months of chaos at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport that led the airport's once-famed name to become somewhat associated with flight disruptions, the airport's Chief Executive Officer, Dick Benschop, officially tendered his resignation on Wednesday.

The head of Schiphol Airport was criticized by both airlines and passengers for mishandling the situation. A day after he surrendered his decision to the airport's Board of Directors, the airport released a statement with Benschop saying:

"The situation at Schiphol and what that means for our travelers and employees is close to my heart. I have done my very best, but we’re not there yet. I hope that things improve soon. I love Schiphol. Managing this company was a great honor."

Dick Benschop is a Dutch national who previously dabbled in Dutch politics, holding the last title as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the Dutch Labor Party before he retired in 2002. After that, Benschop joined Royal Dutch Shell in 2003 and eventually rose to take up the role of Vice-President for Strategy in 2009. From 2011 to 2016, he became the President-Director of Shell Netherlands.

Then in 2017, Benschop became Chairman of the Orange Foundation and subsequently became the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Schiphol Group on May 1st, 2018. Upon his appointment as the airport's head back then, Benschop said:

'Schiphol is a special place and wonderful company; one of the most dynamic organizations in the Netherlands. Aviation is synonymous with many challenges and opportunities. How can we continue to develop sustainably? How can we find a new balance between nuisance and economic importance based on trust? Every big issue, which I will be happy to address on behalf of the Netherlands, passengers, airlines, and residents.’

Under Benschop's reign for approximately one year before the pandemic hit, Schiphol Airport was the heart of aviation in the Netherlands and one of Europe's busiest airports. Airline and passenger transitions through the international hub were generally smooth, except for the usual delays during peak flight hours. The airport was also well-staffed before the pandemic, which meant the intensive workload was more spread around the airport employees for smoother operations.

Schiphol Airport was negatively affected when the pandemic hit, as was the rest of the global aviation industry, forcing the airport to cut hundreds of jobs from its workforce. Unfortunately, this came back to bite the airport once the post-pandemic era began late last year, and when passenger demand surged back this summer, it was wholly unprepared.

The airport ended up suffering from severe staffing shortages. The chaos soon became a clear indication that Schiphol Airport was unprepared for the influx of passengers. Passengers were paying the price for it as cancelations and delays became a standard, almost daily occurrence at the airport.

With the previously retrenched staff yet to return to working at Schiphol Airport, the current team soon felt the fatigue and frustrations of being overworked and, feeling that wages were inadequate, began to stage industrial walkouts. Some staff even decided to tender their resignations as they reached their limit, again at the unfortunate expense of passengers and their long-awaited travel plans.

Attempting to alleviate the chaos at Schiphol Airport, Benschop previously mentioned having gone through several stages of recruiting more temporary or part-time staff for the summer. However, it was still a solution that required too much time given the necessary training and security clearances for airport staff. Attracting short-term staff was also a problem, given that so many previous staff had found jobs elsewhere.

And though labor unions have tried negotiating for more permanent jobs, no agreements with Schiphol Airport have yet been made, except for extending the working term of these staff to be beyond the summer. But given these temporary employees' demanding workload, Benschop knew they might quickly seek jobs elsewhere.

This is why Benschop proposed giving the current and new team at Schiphol summer allowances; an extra €5.25 ($5.24) per hour. Though the summer bonus agreement would cost Schiphol Airport around €40 to €50 million ($39.9-49.9 million), it would only cover the airport staff till the beginning of September, after which the allowance will be reduced to €1.40 ($1.41) per hour to run for one year.

Unfortunately for Benschop, his proposals to alleviate the issue of staffing shortages were barely enough. And as summer allowances stopped this month, Schiphol Airport's chaos has barely subsided. Still, these proposals were not nearly half as disruptive as the proposals for airlines during the summer, when a passenger cap was ordered, and certain airlines were forced to stop selling tickets.

The rather unusual proposed cap caused numerous flight disruptions, as airlines found it unreasonable for their flight schedules to be limited during the peak travel season. As a result, several airlines decided to take their business elsewhere and transfer their scheduled flights to Rotterdam The Hague Airport, and other nearby facilities. And though the cap was initially set to end after summer, Schiphol Airport said it would probably keep it until November at least.

It has become clear that a mix of being unprepared for the aviation industry's sudden, though expected, recovery and a series of inadequate corrective actions have led to the downfall of Schiphol Airport. And though Benschop acknowledges that he tried his best and it was not enough, he also understands that a new leader is needed to give the airport the desperately required restart.

In the statement released by the airport, Benschop continued by saying:

"A lot of attention, and criticism, has been directed towards how Schiphol is tackling the problems and my responsibility as CEO. I am giving Schiphol the space to make a new start on my own initiative. I do not want the attention on me as an individual to become an obstacle for Schiphol."

He will remain in office until the Board of Directors finds a new successor, currently in the works. Unfortunately for airlines and passengers, the disruptions won't calm down anytime soon. And whoever the new head of the airport might be, they will certainly have plenty of work to do regarding the required alleviation of several problems and attempting to restore Schiphol Airport to its former pre-pandemic glory.

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Journalist - Charlotte is currently pursuing a full-time undergraduate degree majoring in Aviation Business Administration and minoring in Air Traffic Management. Charlotte previously wrote for AirlineGeeks. Based in Singapore.

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