Dutch King to attend Schiphol's 100th birthday celebration

King Willem-Alexander will be attending Schiphol Airport's 100th "birthday party" on September 19th. Schiphol's 100 years of existence will be celebrated with various activities, including an exhibition on the history of the airport in the Amsterdam Museum, Het Parool reports. On September 19th, 1916 three Dutch military aircraft landed on Schiphol Air Station for the fist time. In 1920 KLM started the first scheduled service from Amsterdam to London. That year 440 passengers traveled through the airport, marking the start of Schiphol being used for civil aviation. Over the past 100 years Schiphol grew into the second largest aviation hub in the world. Last year the airport accommodated 58.2 million passengers, this year an estimated 63 million people will travel through the airport, and it plans to expand further to eventually handle 80 million passengers a year.