New Schiphol terminal pier delayed to 2027; Budget swells to €1.4 billion

The opening of Schiphol Airport’s new Pier A has been delayed to April 2027, the airport announced on Thursday. The costs for the new terminal pier have risen to nearly 1.4 billion euros.

The airport blamed the delay and increased costs on the previous contractor. “The complicated Pier A project clearly went far from smoothly under the previous contractor. Delays, quality issues, and a legal conflict – none of that helped progress,” said Sybren Hahn, the director of Schiphol Infrastructure.

The new contractor, BAM, had to make repairs to bring the terminal pier’s quality up to standard before it could continue construction. According to Hahn, BAM is confident that it can hand over the keys to the pier in December 2026. The current schedule is “highly precise and includes buffer periods” to catch up on any future delays, the airport said.

“After that, we'll conduct operational testing of the new systems and hundreds of colleagues and airport partners will learn how to work in the new environment. Then, in April 2027, we will open the doors to passengers and airlines,” Hahn said. “A lot still needs to be done before then. Together with BAM, we're putting our shoulders to the wheel.”

Last month, sources told the Telegraaf that Schiphol had to take out a loan of 400 million euros to cover the increased costs of the pier construction. The airport plans to pay for that loan, and other things, by increasing airport charges by 50 to 60 percent, the sources said.

Schiphol CFO Robert Carsouw said on Thursday that the airport was discussing the new airport charges with the airlines. “There are understandably questions about this among the airlines, and we will therefore provide more insight into the project in those discussions and explain how Schiphol intends to deal with costs,” he said. He stressed that individual projects, including the Pier A project, have a “very limited” impact on the airport charges.

If the Telegraaf’s sources are correct about the planned increase in airport charges, KLM’s port charges will rise from around 400 million euros last year to between 600 and 700 million euros next year. That will result in higher airfare, a source told the newspaper. “An airline like KLM can only tolerate this through higher ticket prices. Their profits melt away because of this increase. In a few years, Schiphol will be a very expensive airport, which will mean that flying will become significantly more expensive for consumers,” the source said.