Over 22 million air passengers in Q3, three-quarters travelling in Europe

The third quarter is usually the busiest for air passenger traffic, because it includes the holiday period for schools and workers in the construction sector. August was the busiest month of the year in the third quarter, with 7.7 million air passengers. Monday 10 August was the busiest day, when 261.2 thousand passengers passed through one of the Netherlands’ five major airports.

Schiphol handles nearly 9 out of 10 flights and the majority of passengers

The number of passengers carried increased, but there were fewer commercial flights. Of the total of 144.5 thousand flights operated to and from the Netherlands, 125.9 thousand (87.1 percent) passed through Schiphol Airport. This was down by 1.8 percent from Q3 2025.

There were also fewer flights to and from Eindhoven Airport (-0.9 percent), which accounted for 7.9 percent of all flights to and from the Netherlands.

Schiphol handled the highest number of passengers: 19.4 million (86.7 percent of the total). For Eindhoven Airport this was 2.1 million passengers (9.3 percent). These figures have remained fairly stable over the last few quarters. The remaining 903.5 thousand passengers passed through the three other national airports.

Three-quarters of air passengers travelling within Europe

A total of 16.8 million air passengers travelled between the Netherlands and a destination in Europe in Q3 2026. That represents three-quarters of all air passengers worldwide.
Spain was the most popular destination, with 3.2. million passengers. Five Spanish airports feature in the top ten European destinations, but El Prat in Barcelona (515.8 thousand passengers) and Costa del Sol Airport in Málaga (458.2 thousand passengers) were the most popular destinations in Spain.

In addition, many passengers travelling within Europe flew to or from the United Kingdom (2.2 million), of whom 388 thousand passed through London Heathrow.

Of the 5.6 million passengers who travelled via a Dutch airport to or from countries outside Europe, almost one-third flew to or from the United States (1.7 million passengers). In recent years, this figure has remained virtually unchanged in the third quarter.

7.9 percent of air passengers travelled to or from other destinations outside Europe, such as Canada (441 thousand passengers) and Morocco (327 thousand passengers, or 5.8 percent).

Destinations vary by airport

The most popular destinations vary at the five main airports in the Netherlands. For three out of the five national airports, the majority of passengers travelled to and from one of Spain’s airports. Most passengers who passed through Groningen Airport Eelde travelled to and from Greece. Maastricht Aachen Airport saw most passengers travelling to and from Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. These destinations were added following the arrival of a new airline at Maastricht Aachen Airport in April 2026.

Air passengers passing through Schiphol were travelling mainly to or from Europe (71.9 percent). In addition, 16.1 percent travelled to or from North, Central or South America, and 8.4 percent flew to or from Asia.

At the other airports, virtually all passengers travelled within Europe. Only Eindhoven Airport and Rotterdam The Hague Airport also provided flights to and from destinations outside Europe: 3.7 percent and 9.9 percent of passengers at these airports, respectively, were traveling to and from North Africa.