Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport served 61.7 million air passengers across more than 441,000 flights, an increase of 18% over 2022, according to preliminary figures released by the Dutch Royal Schiphol Group on Friday. However, Schiphol’s flyer numbers are still 14% down on benchmark pre-Covid year, 2019.
Meanwhile The Netherlands’ second largest airport, Eindhoven, saw its highest ever passenger numbers at 6.8 million and Rotterdam The Hague welcomed 2.2 million.
Rocky road to recovery
2022 was a nightmarish year for Schiphol, which coped badly with the post-Covid surge. In an effort to get back control, the airport capped passenger numbers and was forced to compensate those who lost flights as a result. The chaos saw the airport branded “worst airport ever” in online commentary and it lost airlines like KLM to other nearby airports such as Brussels. The 2022 results even saw Schiphol Group interim CEO Ruud Sondag apologizing for not being “able to provide the service we wanted” and having “disappointed so many travellers and airlines”.
The 18% uptick in 2023 will therefore be a balm, though these preliminary results will not be confirmed until financial statements in February 2024.
Still a major hub
Nearly forty million flyers had direct flights in or out of Schiphol over the year. Confirming the airport’s important role in the European and international skies, 36% had connecting flights.
Having gained seven destinations, including Alanya, Mexico City and Beijing, but lost 16, including those in Russia and Ukraine, Schiphol now connects to 305 destinations, 125 of them intercontinental. 43 million passengers departed to or arrived from a destination in Europe, and 18 million to or from an intercontinental destination. Great Britain was the most popular destination, followed by Spain and the United States.
11 million so-called “unique transfer passengers” were counted according to the internationally standard method.
In terms of cargo, Schiphol handled 1.37 million tonnes of it, dropping 4.8% compared to 2022 (1.44 million tonnes). There were 15,969 cargo-only flights, which represents 12.9% fewer than in 2022 (18,340 cargo flights).
Rotterdam
The 2.2 million people who passed through Rotterdam The Hague is a success for the airport, which saw significant growth in the 2010s after decades of closure threats. It carried five per cent more passengers than in 2022 and 6% more than in 2019. The airport managed to achieve those numbers despite its 16,191 air transport movements still being down on 2019 (-3%).
