Schiphol expects more passengers next year than before pandemic; more expensive flights

Schiphol is expecting more passengers next year than before the coronavirus crisis for the first time, CEO Pieter van Oord said at a press conference following a rough estimate based on recent passenger figures. This year, the airport is still expecting 65 to 68 million passengers, while the figure for 2019 is expected to be just under 72 million.

Van Oord emphasized that he could not make a "firm prediction." It depends on political decisions regarding the number of aircraft that are allowed to take off from Schiphol. This year there are over 470,000, in 2019 it was almost 497,000. Schiphol is not expected to exceed this number of flights next year.

Schiphol benefits from fuller planes. "You can see that people want to fly. The planes are full despite price increases of between 50 and 100 percent over the last four years. And the number of passengers per aircraft will continue to increase significantly, partly due to the renewal of the airlines' fleets," said Van Oord.

On average, there will be "several dozen more passengers" on board an aircraft in the coming years, according to the top manager. "With this fleet expansion, the number of annual passengers at Schiphol will certainly reach 80 to 90 million in ten years, but that depends heavily on the number of 'slots' we get, among other things."

Schiphol expects significant increase in fees and more expensive tickets

While more passengers are coming to the Amsterdam airport, Schiphol expects that airport charges for airlines will have to be increased "significantly" over the next three years. Discussions about these port charges are ongoing with the airlines, which is why Finance Director Robert Carsouw does not want to give a percentage. "But it is no secret that the fee increase will be substantial." The airlines will likely pass this on to the ticket prices.

Schiphol needs more money to pay for the record-high investments until 2029. The airport also wants to increase its own commercial performance, for example, in store operations, by renewing its offer. This will also require new loans, but it will first need to increase its own revenue.

According to Carsouw, a passenger now pays 45 euros in airline ticket prices to depart from Schiphol. 35 euros go towards personnel costs and 10 euros towards infrastructure, in which a lot is to be invested in the coming years. "So these 10 euros will be more, but it won't be 100 euros," said the Finance Director at a press conference.

In the first half of this year, Schiphol recorded a profit of 224 million euros, significantly more than last year's 15 million. Carsouw: "It is good news that things are picking up again, but it is still far too little to pay for the investments. If we look at the costs of the investments, we end up with a deficit of 188 million euros. That's how much emptier the bank account has actually become."

With the major investments in the coming years, Schiphol wants to ensure that passengers have more space and can count on better facilities. "For the past 20 years, the emphasis was on growth and cheapness. There was no painting, and the roof was not maintained until it collapsed, which is happening now," says CEO Pieter van Oord. "And no rooms were built for the new children," says financial director Robert Carsouw, helping to outline the problems.

According to Van Oord, who took office in June, Schiphol has become the tightest airport in Europe. "And we want to be in the middle. But we can't build a whole new airport, as is happening in other parts of the world. That's why we mainly want to compete with European airports such as Heathrow, Frankfurt, and Paris. But in recent years, especially after the pandemic, we have been doing less well than those airports in passenger experience. That is undesirable for us."

The airport's expansion will mainly involve a new A and C pier. "The new C pier, for example, is twice as big as the existing one. But after that, we still have a shortage in the terminals, so that's the next challenge." To that end, the airport is now cautiously considering a new terminal on the south side, where a new baggage basement will also be built. However, this will only come into play after 2029 and is therefore not yet included in the 6 billion euros in investments over the next five years.

The airport is, therefore, forced to ask the airlines for more money again. This had previously led to a court case because they thought the charge increase was too high, but the judge ruled in Schiphol's favor. The port charges will be set in the coming months. According to the airlines, there is talk of a 50 percent increase.