Over 76 million passengers travel via Dutch airports

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In 2017, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol welcomed another record number of passengers: 68.4 million, 7.7 percent more than one year previously. The number of arrivals and departures has seen year-on-year growth since 2009. Aircraft movements (take-offs and landings) increased by 3.7 percent to nearly 497 thousand in 2017. This is just below the maximum ceiling set by the Alders Platform covenant dating from 2008, which stipulates that Schiphol Airport can only have a maximum of 500 thousand movements per year until 2020.

The fact that passenger numbers are rising more rapidly than the number of movements is explained by the use of larger aircraft and a higher seat occupancy rate per flight.

Passenger transport soaring at Eindhoven Airport

As the second largest national airport, Eindhoven welcomed close to 5.7 million travellers in 2017, an increase of over 19 percent over 2016. It is the highest growth rate for this airport since 2012. More than 1.7 million people travelled via Rotterdam The Hague Airport, almost 5.4 percent up from the previous year. Groningen Airport Eelde recorded the strongest growth at over 32 percent. Maastricht Aachen saw passenger numbers drop by 5.1 percent, but did handle more air freight. Groningen and Maastricht carry relatively few passengers: only 0.5 percent flew via these airports.

Sharp increase in air freight at Maastricht Aachen Airport

Air freight handling at Schiphol Airport rose in volume by 5.5 percent last year to nearly 1.8 million tonnes in air transhipments. In the same year, Maastricht Aachen saw a sharp increase to 87 thousand tonnes of air freight (+43 percent). This was partly the result of an additional number of airlines and the expansion of activities by existing ones. Relatively few airlines operate from Maastricht Aachen Airport, which means total transhipment volumes are strongly affected by the departure or addition of one airline company.