Schiphol processed more than twice as many passengers last year as in 2021. Despite the Covid restrictions in early 2022 and the logistical problems later in the year, 52.5 million people traveled to, from or via Amsterdam airport last year. In 2021 there were 25.5 million.
Schiphol was still well below the number of passengers in peak year 2019 (71.7 million). Popular destinations last year were Curaçao (growth in travelers: 19 percent) and Bonaire (+59 percent). The annual figures that Schiphol published on Monday are provisional figures. The final results will follow in February.
Of the 52.5 million passengers, 37 percent had a transfer at Schiphol. That was 9.6 million individual travelers: according to the international counting method used by the airport, transfer passengers are counted twice, as a traveler on arrival and as a traveler on departure.
Transfers at Schiphol are under fire. According to critics, including those living near the airport, transfer passengers only cause (noise) nuisance. They would add little to the Dutch economy. On the other hand, airlines, KLM in particular, argue that they need transfer passengers to fill their flights and maintain their network of connections, particularly to intercontinental destinations.
Read also: Large staff shortages or not, the cabinet is not in favor of more labor migration
Restrictions on aircraft movements and passengers
The number of so-called flight movements (take-offs and landings) was 398,000 last year. That is almost 50 percent more than in 2021. In 2019, Schiphol counted 497,000 flight movements, just below the maximum number of half a million.
Due to the noise nuisance caused by air traffic, the government wants to limit the number of flight movements. Minister Mark Harbers (Infrastructure and Water Management, VVD) wants to reduce the number of permitted movements from 1 November 2023 to 450,000 to 465,000. The minister thinks he can enforce this by finally adhering to the rules that apply to aircraft noise at Schiphol. For years, exceedances of the noise standards were tolerated.
Harbers actually wanted to limit the number of flight movements a little more, to 440,000, but the minister is not yet able to do that. In the autumn, he already reported that European rules prevent him from introducing his desired limit of 440,000 flight movements by the end of 2023. Harbers must demonstrate that no measure other than a reduction in the number of flight movements will limit noise nuisance. The maximum of 440,000 should now apply from 1 November 2024.
Meanwhile, Schiphol still applies a maximum number of passengers departing from Amsterdam. Until the end of March, that is about 18 percent below the numbers before the pandemic. According to a Schiphol spokesperson, the airport wants to announce next week how many (locally departing) passengers are possible from April. That is important for the May holidays. Last year, air traffic was completely out of control from the beginning of May.
Read also: Is Schiphol ready for the upcoming May holiday peak?
Personnel shortages
The temporary restrictions have everything to do with the major shortage of personnel at the security companies and the ground handling companies (who take care of luggage, check-in and ramp work).
Schiphol now seems to be well on its way to solving the shortage of security personnel. The joint recruitment of new people by Schiphol and the companies to which the airport has outsourced personal and baggage checks appears to be successful.
But according to the trade union FNV, the staff shortage at the eight handling companies that are active at Schiphol is still very high. According to Joost van Doesburg, campaign manager FNV Schiphol, the eight handlers together count “many hundreds of vacancies” on approximately three thousand employees. This mainly concerns employees in the baggage basements, check-in staff and people who work around the aircraft on the apron.
The handling staff expects another tough summer with many disruptions to come
Van Doesburg calls on the airlines to do more against the high workload. “The staff in handling sees another tough summer with many disruptions coming,” the FNV writes in an urgent letter to the companies on Monday. “The staff shortage is enormous and employees are fleeing the much too high workload and wages just above the legal minimum.”
Unlike the security companies (which Schiphol itself hires), the ground handling companies are hired by the airlines. As far as Van Doesburg is concerned, Schiphol should play a more guiding role. The Ministry of Infrastructure is investigating how the relatively large number of eight handling companies at Schiphol can be limited in order to reduce deadly competition.