Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport sees continued traffic growth

Traffic at Amsterdam Schiphol airport reached almost six million travellers in May as the Dutch hub continues its recovery in passenger numbers.

Schiphol catered for 5.98 million passengers last month, including one million transfer travellers who are each counted twice in the figures. This was a 7 per cent increase on May 2023’s passenger numbers as the number of flights also rose by 5 per cent year-on-year to reach 44,121 during the month.

The Dutch hub said its most popular destinations in May were Spain, the UK, Italy and the US. But the airport’s overall passenger numbers during the month were still down by 7 per cent on May 2019’s figure of 6.44 million travellers.

Schiphol’s performance lags behind that of another major European hub airport, London Heathrow, which set a new traffic record for May at 7.2 million passengers. Although Schiphol’s recovery is faster than at Frankfurt airport in Germany where May’s traffic of 5.5 million remained nearly 12 per cent below 2019 levels.

During the first five months of 2024, Schiphol catered for 25.8 million passengers, which was an increase of 12.4 per cent on the same period last year.

The ability for Schiphol to continue growing will be back in focus again when a new right-wing coalition government takes power in the Netherlands after months of political wrangling between different parties.

The current Dutch government had planned to reduce the number of flights allowed at Schiphol to reduce noise pollution at the airport, before being forced to suspend this plan in November 2023 due to pressure from the US and EU. Although the outgoing government last month announced new plans to limit night flights and ban certain aircraft by 2025.

Meanwhile Dutch airline KLM has just submitted its latest proposals to reduce noise pollution from its operations at Schiphol. The carrier is proposing that noise reduction targets can be met through “fleet renewal, smarter operational procedures and optimised deployment of our quietest aircraft at night”.

Barry ter Voert, KLM’s chief experience officer and EVP of business development, added: “We believe this is the best way to develop a balanced and effective package of measures to reduce noise impact, while ensuring that we maintain the excellent international connections that are so crucial for the Netherlands, businesses and people in general.”