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Schiphol invests €6bn to improve airport facilities as capacity increases

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Schiphol invests €6bn to improve airport facilities as capacity increases

Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport will invest €6 billion over the next five years to improve infrastructure and passenger services, the Netherlands hub announced on Friday.

Described as “the biggest investment plan in the airport’s history”, the newly allocated funds are an extension of a previously announced €3 billion investment to carry out maintenance and upgrade works between 2024 and 2027, which will now extend to 2029.

This includes “major” works at Pier C, the baggage basement, upgrades to climate-control systems, escalators, aircraft stands and taxiways as well as the ongoing Pier A project.

“Our infrastructure is the foundation of our service, but is currently far from what we want to offer our passengers as a quality airport in the Netherlands,” said Schiphol CEO Pieter van Oord, who took the helm in June.

Van Oord added that the investment would be “crucial” to improving passenger satisfaction levels.

The airport on Friday also reported an 11 per cent year-on-year increase in passenger numbers throughout the first half of 2024, with 31.8 million travellers passing through its doors and monthly traffic numbers “increasingly coming towards the pre-Covid levels”.

Air capacity also increased 12 per cent year on year with 230,417 flights recorded between January and the end of June.

For the full year, Schiphol expects total passenger numbers to reach between 65 and 68 million, while the expected number of flights is between 470,000 and 473,000.

The previous Dutch government attempted to reduce flight capacity at the airport to 460,000 flights per year. However, it was forced to abandon the plan in November 2023 following pressure from the EU and US authorities. 

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