‘Little is left of guarantees struck by the Dutch government with Air France when it took over KLM in 2003, the Volkskrant says on Monday.

This means the airline management have a free hand to scrap KLM flights from Schiphol airport or shift them to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, the paper says.

The paper has compared the guarantees issued in 2003 with documents signed by then-transport minister Camiel Eurlings in 2010 when the agreement was up for renewal. The new agreement is ‘far from being as concrete as the original’, the paper states. Eurlings went to work for KLM later that year.

The original statement includes guarantees on jobs in and around Schiphol, that the growth of Schiphol and Charles de Gaulle should be balanced and that KLM should be able to operate as an independent entity.

The updated agreement does not include reference to KLM destinations or airport development, the Volkskrant says.

Eurlings said at the time that the guarantees were not as broad as in 2003 because of the amount of time it would take and because there was ‘trust between France and the Netherlands’.

Changes

Experts have told the paper that in terms of airport development, Schiphol has not been disadvantaged since then. However, some airline changes do not bode well for the future, the experts say.

For example, KLM’s freight arm Martinair has been slimmed down significantly and some KLM corporate units shifted to Paris, the paper states.

Eurlings joined the KLM board after leaving active politics later in 2010. He became president and CEO of KLM in July 2013 but quit last year after his contract was not renewed.