Schiphol profits up to €227m

Schiphol Airport looks back on a good year once again, with a net profit of €227m, a growth of 15 percent compared to 2012. CEO Jos Nijhuis is pleased. The number of passengers grew again, with 3 percent, up to 52.6 million travelers.

To ensure its competitive position the airport is executing a so-called Master plan. 'We started a large-scale face-lift, which will cost us €1.5m a day in the next few years,' said Nijhuis. In the end passengers should experience more comfort and ease, with more spacious terminal and smoother proceedings at the piers. The profit is based not only on the increased number of passengers, but also on lower taxes, a higher property value, and a 3 percent increase in the amount of cargo. Sales in stores behind the passport checkpoint dropped with 4.8 percent. The net parking revenues also increased to €99m, due to an increase in passengers at regional airports. Nijhuis expects another 2 to 3 percent growth in passengers for 2014. Where previously the number of aircraft movements remained stable despite the steadily growing number of passengers, the CEO expects that will change. Instead of upping the number of aircrafts airlines deployed larger aircrafts. Now that those planes have gotten pretty full, the only other alternative is to increase the number of movements.