Schiphol handled almost 442,000 flights last year, up 11% from 2022

Schiphol Airport processed just under 442,000 flights last year, of which almost 426,000 were passenger flights, the airport announced on Friday. That is an increase of 11 percent compared to 2022. The total number of flight movements is still well below the level of 2019, the last year before the coronavirus pandemic. At that time, Schiphol handled almost 500,000 flights.

The number of passengers who traveled through Schiphol increased by 18 percent last year to almost 62 million. More than 39 million of them were direct passengers whose trips either started or ended at Schiphol. The remaining 36 percent of travelers made a transfer at the airport, which amounts to 11 million unique transfers. Schiphol explained that this group is counted twice using an international counting standard, as they are tallied "as a traveler on arrival and as a traveler on departure."

There is more to do to increase capacity at the country's largest airport, the second largest in the European Union, where a maximum of 500,000 flights were allowed last year. That number was in danger of falling last year. The Cabinet wanted the maximum number of annual flights to reduce to 460,000, to the dissatisfaction of airlines. The downsizing plan has now been suspended.

Schiphol recently announced that it will have enough space for 483,000 flights next year. That capacity is 9 percent more than the total number of flight movements last year.

In addition to Schiphol, the Royal Schiphol Group also holds full ownership over Rotterdam The Hague Airport, and a 51 percent stake in Eindhoven Airport. The latter saw 8 percent more passengers use the airport in the past year, with a total of 6.8 million. That record-setting number beat the total from 2019, when more than 6.7 million people traveled through Eindhoven Airport. The number of flights increased by 3 percent to more than 41,000.

More than 2.2 million people traveled through Rotterdam The Hague Airport in 2023. That was 5 percent more than in 2022 and also more than in the last year before the pandemic. The number of flights, more than 16,000, was also higher compared to 2022 and 2019.

The Royal Schiphol Group further stated that these are provisional figures. The final figures will follow when the annual figures are published in February.