Schiphol beats London's Heathrow with most non-stop flights in EU

Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam overtook Heathrow airport in London as the European airport that offers the most direct flights, according to a new report by industry organization ACI Europe, Het Parool reports.

The Amsterdam airport is now the European airport that offers the most direct flights with 4,861 direct flights a week. That is a 20 percent increase compared to 10 years ago. Heathrow reduced the number of direct flights slightly during the same time period. As dit other rivals like Charles de Gaulle in Paris.

Schiphol came in second place globally for its hub function. Frankfurt took first place in this category, in which the researchers looked at the switching options and networks to which the airport is connected. Schiphol counts 56,535 connections, 70 percent more than in 2007.

Schiphol CEO Jos Nijhuis is satisfied with the results. "The extensive and frequent network of destinations makes the outside world accessible to all Dutch and vice versa. But it also good for competitiveness and therefore for the economic growth of the Netherlands", he said to Het Parool.