The number of air passengers rose sharply in the first three months of this year compared to the same period a year earlier. In the first quarter of 2022, 10.1 million passengers traveled to and from the five main airports in the Netherlands. That is almost five times as much as in the first three months of 2021, when the Netherlands was in a prolonged lockdown due to the corona pandemic. This is evident from figures published on Friday from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS)†
Last January and February, 2.8 and 3 million people respectively traveled by plane, a sharp increase compared to January (910,000) and February (520,000) last year. And the figures from March are also cause for optimism for the aviation sector. Last March, 4.2 million passengers flew to and from the Netherlands; 3.6 million more than in March 2021 and almost 1.5 million more than in March 2020.
Incidentally, the number of people who traveled by plane was still nowhere near the level of before the corona pandemic, despite the disappearance of the corona measures. The first quarter of 2019 had 17.1 million air passengers, no less than 7 million more than last quarter.
trade flights
Air trade is also recovering, but has not yet reached pre-coronavirus levels. In the first quarter of 2022, an average of 73 percent fewer trade flights to and from the Netherlands departed each month than in 2018 and 2019.
Due to the worldwide corona restrictions, a large part of air traffic to and from the Netherlands has been stopped for many months. Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith spoke at the beginning of last year of “the worst crisis the airline industry has ever had to deal with”. Nevertheless, the pre-corona figures seem to be slowly coming back into view with the crowds at the airports last May. In recent weeks there have been long lines at Schiphol, among other places, and dozens of flights have been canceled due to the crowds.