KLM strike: your rights and compensation

• On 17 September 2025, KLM's own ground staff, called out by the unions FNV and CNV in a dispute over their collective agreement, stopped work at Schiphol from 08:00 to 12:00. KLM cancelled about a hundred flights, affecting some 27,000 passengers. Further strikes announced for 24 September and 1 October were suspended when the unions went back to negotiating.
• A strike by an airline's own staff is not an extraordinary circumstance (Court of Justice of the European Union, Airhelp v SAS, C-28/20, 2021): cancellations and delays of 3 hours or more it causes generally give a right to compensation. The Schiphol strike of September 2025 was such a strike: KLM's own ground staff.
• Strikes by air traffic controllers, such as the French controllers' strikes that hit flights crossing France, and by staff who do not work for KLM, usually rule out compensation. KLM must still refund or re-route you, and look after you while you wait.
• Your flight may have been operated by KLM Cityhopper, KLM's regional airline, or by a partner such as Air France or Delta: compensation is owed by the airline that operated it, and a flight into the EU on a non-European airline is not covered.

In 2021 the Court of Justice of the European Union held that a strike called by a union of the airline's own staff, such as its pilots or cabin crew, to obtain better pay or conditions is not an extraordinary circumstance: it is part of the normal running of an airline, which can expect labour disputes with its staff (Airhelp v SAS, C-28/20). Cancellations and delays of 3 hours or more caused by such a strike therefore generally give a right to compensation.

The same applies to a so-called wildcat strike, when a large part of the crew calls in sick at once after a surprise announcement by management (Court of Justice, Krüsemann, C-195/17, 2018).

A strike by people who do not work for the airline, such as air traffic controllers, airport security staff or the staff of the airport itself, is usually an extraordinary circumstance: it is outside the airline's control. If it caused your cancellation or delay, compensation is usually not owed, provided the airline did what it reasonably could to limit the disruption, including re-routing you on another airline's flight when that was faster (Court of Justice, TAP, C-74/19, 2020).

Air traffic control strikes in one country also hit flights that only cross its airspace: a French controllers' strike delays flights between Spain and Germany, for example.

Even when the strike is an extraordinary circumstance, your other rights stay intact. If your flight is cancelled you choose between a refund of your ticket within 7 days and another flight to your destination. While you wait, the airline must offer meals and refreshments, two phone calls or emails and, if you have to stay overnight, a hotel and transport to it (Articles 8 and 9). Keep the receipts for anything you have to pay yourself.

Strikes are often announced days or weeks ahead. If the airline cancelled your flight and told you at least 14 days before departure, no compensation is owed, but you keep the choice between a refund and another flight. If it told you later than that, the usual notice rules for cancellations apply: compensation can be due if the strike was by the airline's own staff.

• KLM
• Strikes