Compared to the first corona year, it did become busier at the airports, reports the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Air passenger numbers increased by almost a quarter compared to 2020, when international flights were virtually impossible for a long time. Passenger aircraft were also better filled than a year earlier.
Schiphol is still by far the most important airport for the Netherlands. 25.5 million passengers boarded or disembarked here, 22 percent more than in 2020. But other airports recovered more than Amsterdam’s. For example, Eindhoven Airport saw the number of passengers increase by 28 percent on an annual basis to 2.7 million and passenger traffic at Groningen Eelde Airport grew by 55.5 percent to 17,600 passengers.
light point
For airline companies such as KLM, the high demand for cargo flights was a bright spot. A total of 1.8 million tons of cargo was transported by air via Dutch airports. That is almost 14 percent more than a year earlier and almost 7 percent more than in 2019.
Other sectors, such as manufacturing, are showing strong recovery from the first blow of the corona pandemic. Because much more was suddenly imported by Europe and the United States, shortages of sea containers arose, as a result of which companies more often turned to aircraft for the transport of cargo.