Mideast luxury carrier Emirates remains in talks to add a third daily A380 service between Amsterdam and its home base Dubai.

Emirates CEO Tim Clark told the Telegraaf: ‘We just finished talking with the infrastructure ministry, but they are being sidetracked by the leadership crisis at Air France KLM.’

Emirates now operates a twice daily A380 service between the two airports and wants to add a third.  The number of landing slots at Schiphol is limited as the airport is nearly full. ‘This is an artificial limitation. Schiphol has five runways and there is strong market demand for slots,’ Clark told the paper.

The buying and selling of slots at the airport is not permitted, but the ministry is studying the matter.

Last year, the airport reached its cap of 500,000 flight movements a year. The airport can expand again only after 2020 although pressure is mounting for the rules to be relaxed.