Recovery after coronavirus: Schiphol lags behind the competition

Schiphol's recovery from the coronavirus crisis is still lagging behind that of its competitors. While other airports in the five largest European airports have already almost reached or exceeded the 2019 level, Schiphol saw a decline in passenger numbers of just under 14% last year. The industry association ACI Europe blames the more difficult recovery on capacity bottlenecks, the slow recovery in Asia, and the slower return of business travel.

At the beginning of last year, there were still minor capacity bottlenecks at Schiphol due to staff shortages. However, compared to the difficult year 2022, the airport was well-staffed again. Schiphol is still the fourth-largest airport in Europe, but had to realize that the frontrunner London Heathrow is growing faster and reached a capacity utilization of 98 percent in 2019. Number two Istanbul already had 11 percent more passengers than before the coronavirus crisis.

Schiphol welcomed 62 million travelers last year, a growth of 18 percent compared to the difficult 2022. This growth is in line with the overall European growth rate of almost a fifth on an annual basis. Across the continent, demand for air travel reached more than 95 percent of 2019 levels, which corresponds to the global figure announced by the international organization IATA earlier this week.