Schiphol saw more passengers than last year but still below pre-pandemic levels

More passengers transited through Schiphol Airport last year, and the number of flights to and from the largest airport in the Netherlands also increased. The number of passengers and flights in 2024 was still below the level of 2019, the last year before the coronavirus pandemic, Schiphol announced on Tuesday.

Schiphol handled 473,814 flight movements last year, 7 percent more than in 2023. In 2019, almost 500,000 flights departed from Schiphol or arrived at the Amsterdam-area airport. There was an 8 percent increase in passenger volume as well, with 66.8 million passengers had journeys that either started, ended, or involved a transfer at the airport. Of these, more than 42.5 million passengers traveled directly to or from the airport, while roughly 24.3 million transferred at Schiphol.

Most people had destinations in the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, the United States, and Turkey. The majority of travellers, over 45 million, went to or arrived from a destination in Europe. The other 21 million or so travelled to or from an intercontinental destination.

The capacity at the largest airport in the Netherlands has been a major point of discussion for several years. In 2024, Schiphol had official permission for a maximum of 500,000 flights per year. The government wants to allow 478,000 flight movements at Schiphol this year. Local residents and other parties want the maximum number of permitted flights to be reduced further due to noise pollution.

However, the reduction of that ceiling does not mean that there will be fewer flights. According to the new figures from Schiphol, the maximum was not reached in 2024 either, it now appears.

Schiphol also reported that almost 1.5 million tons of cargo were processed in 2024. That is eight percent more than a year earlier. Of the flights, 15,661 were full cargo flights, almost two percent less than in 2023, but a tenth more than in 2019.

These are provisional figures, the airport said. The definitive figures will follow when the annual figures are published in February.