Schiphol booked €65 mil. profit despite staff shortage-chaos

After two difficult coronavirus years, the Royal Schiphol Group made 65 million euros in profit in the first six months of this year, compared to a loss of 140 million euros in the same period last year. That despite the chaos staff shortages caused at Schiphol and other airports in the group.

A big reason for the positive figures is the increase in travelers. The Netherlands and many other countries lifted their coronavirus lockdowns in the first months of this year, prompting people to travel again after two years stuck at home.

Schiphol also received wage support from the Cabinet and recorded gains on its investments and assets. Without these two factors and a few other windfalls, the airport group would have suffered a loss of 33 million euros in the first half of 2022.

The downside to the increase in passengers is that the Royal Schiphol Group could not recruit enough employees to handle them all due to the tightness of the Dutch labor market. This resulted in massive queues at Schiphol and some other airports starting late in April and lasting through July.

Schiphol had to cut a large number of flights in July. “Since the beginning of August, the passenger experience has been more reliable,” the Royal Schiphol Group said in a statement.

A total of 27.3 million passengers traveled through the Royal Schiphol Group airports in the first half of this year, a massive 359 percent increase compared to the 6 million travelers in the same period last year. Then coronavirus-related travel restrictions were still widespread. Schiphol handled the lion’s share of travelers at 23.8 million, followed by Eindhoven Airport (2.7 million) and Rotterdam The Hague Airport (800,000).

“It is great to see so many passengers back after the lifting of Covid travel restrictions. Unfortunately, staff shortages impacted Schiphol in this period of steep growth, like other airports and airlines,” Schiphol CEO Dick Benschop said. “Due to measures taken, our service level is improving step by step. We will continue to improve our operational performance, invest in our infrastructure, and make changes in the running of the airport where necessary.”

Flight movements at Schiphol Airport increased by 120 percent to 189,506 but are still 22 percent below 2019 levels. Cargo volumes at Schipol decreased by 14 percent to 0.7 million tons.