Last year, a quarter fewer air passengers than before the corona crisis

More than sixty million passengers traveled to and from the five major airports in the Netherlands in 2022, it appears figures published Friday of the Central Bureau of Statistics. That is almost a quarter less than before the corona crisis, when 81.3 million people traveled through the airports.

Even after the corona measures were lifted in early 2022, there were invariably fewer air travelers than before the pandemic broke out. In the busiest month, August last year, the number of 6.4 million travelers was 19 percent lower than in 2019.

Spain was the most popular travel destination last year, Statistics Netherlands also reports, especially Barcelona with 1.5 million travellers. The United Kingdom has become less popular: in 2019, 13.9 percent of passengers still flew between the UK and the Netherlands, in 2022 that was 10.9 percent.

CO2savings

If all those sixty million passengers were to fly from Amsterdam to Barcelona, ​​this would save 2.4 megatonnes of CO compared to 2019.2 mean, appears from a rough estimate based on calculations of the International Civil Aviation Organization. By way of comparison: in 2021, the Netherlands will hit the mark, according to it Planning Office for the Living Environment 172 megatons of CO2 from.

Because people often fly farther, the actual drop in CO2emissions probably higher. On the other hand, aircraft were on average emptier last year. In 2019 there were 81 passengers in every hundred seats, in 2022 there were still 76, according to Statistics Netherlands.

Global citizens

In addition to the corona measures, the drop in passenger numbers is due to staffing problems at Schiphol, says aviation expert Joris Melkert. Due to a lack of security guards in particular, the airport had to limit the number of passengers. “That has taken quite a toll. Other airports have tried to take over flights, but they have only succeeded sparingly.”

The cabinet has decided that Schiphol must shrink, but according to Melkert it is not certain that the CO2emissions will fall further. “The question is what kind of aircraft the companies will use: the same as before, or larger ones to be able to transport more passengers? In the second case, emissions will only increase.”

Melkert also does not think that demand will decrease. “We are citizens of the world, we are not going to fly less. Everyone complained last summer about the huge queues at Schiphol, but we were there.”

ttn-32