16.6 million air passengers in Q1 2025

© CBS / Nikki van Toorn
A total of 16.6 million passengers flew to or from the Netherlands’ five national airports in the first quarter of 2025. That was an increase of 2 percent compared with the first quarter of 2024. The number of cargo flights was the same as in Q1 2024 at 121.5 thousand. The volume of air freight transported fell by over 8 percent to 352 thousand tonnes during the same period. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this on the basis of new figures.

In the first quarter of 2025, 14.8 million passengers flew to or from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, which was 89 percent of the total number of air passengers flying to and from the Netherlands. In Q1 2024 the number was 14.4 million, 3 percent lower than this year’s figure.

In the first three months of 2025, 413.6 thousand air passengers flew to and from Rotterdam The Hague Airport, an increase of 2.5 percent over Q1 2024. Only Schiphol and Rotterdam The Hague saw increases in passenger numbers in Q1 2025 compared to Q1 2024.

At the other three of the Netherlands’ main airports, both the number of flights and the number of passengers carried went down. The largest drop in air passengers was at Maastricht Aachen Airport, where numbers were down by 47 percent. This is because there were fewer winter destinations from this airport in Q1 2025 than there were in Q1 2024.

Air traffic in Eindhoven and Rotterdam back to pre-pandemic levels

The number of flights at Rotterdam The Hague Airport in Q1 2025 was 2 percent lower than in Q1 2024, but it was up by more than 8 percent compared to Q1 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic began. The number of passengers flying to and from Rotterdam The Hague Airport in Q1 2025 was more than 30 percent higher than in Q1 2019.

There were also 3.3 percent more flights to and from Eindhoven Airport than in Q1 2019, and 5.8 percent more passengers carried. This means that these are the only two major airports in the Netherlands that have returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Volume of air freight down

Of the more than 352 thousand tonnes of air freight transported in Q1 2025, 98 percent or 345 thousand tonnes was handled by Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. That was a year-on-year drop of over 8 percent. The remaining 2 percent, 7.3 thousand tonnes, was handled by Maastricht Aachen Airport. That was 7.8 percent more than in Q1 2024.

Most freight to and from China

Most air freight was transported to and from China, the United States and the United Arab Emirates. A total of 155 thousand tonnes of freight was transported to and from these three countries in Q1 2025, which was 44 percent of all air freight transported to and from the Netherlands. In percentage terms that was almost the same in Q1 2024, but then 171 thousand tonnes of freight was transported.

Of the 12.6 thousand tonnes of freight transported by air within the EU, Germany accounted for 6.1 thousand tonnes. Among European countries outside the EU, Türkiye (Turkey) accounted for 10.2 thousand tonnes, or 62 percent of all air freight transported to and from non-EU countries in Europe.

Sources