Schiphol welcomed 5.2 million travelers in May, the airport reported on Friday. In May 2019, when there was no corona virus yet, there were 6.4 million. Despite the chaos and problems due to the staff shortage, Schiphol thus managed to hold its own.
Last month, the airport mainly struggled with staff shortages during the May holidays. As a result, last minute flights were canceled and people had to wait in line for hours.
Those problems are still not completely solved. As a result, Schiphol is forced to set a limit on the number of passengers in the summer. The airport is also canceling flights.
Nevertheless, in May 5.2 million people were still able to take the plane. 1.7 million travelers of these were counted double because they had a transfer; as a passenger on arrival and as a passenger on departure. This means 850,000 unique passengers.
That is more travelers than in the past two years, when the aviation world suffered from the corona crisis. In May 2020, 200,000 passengers were transported, in May last year there were 1.1 million. In 2019, 6.4 travelers came to the airport in May.
Compared to last year, the number of flights rose 147 percent to 38,420. That is still 14 percent less than before the corona crisis.