Over 76 mil. travelers through Dutch airports last year; Still below pre-pandemic levels

Last year, over 76 million airline passengers traveled to and from the five airports in the Netherlands. That is almost 7 percent more than in 2023, but still 6 percent less than in 2019, the last full year before the coronavirus pandemic. In 2019, the number of travelers was still over 81 million.

According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), there were a total of 537,000 commercial flights last year, over 6 percent more than a year earlier. Air freight transport increased by almost 8 percent to over 1.5 million tons.

The increase in flights and passengers last year was mainly due to growth at Schiphol Airport. Almost 474,000 flights were carried out to and from the Amsterdam airport, over 7 percent more than in 2023. The number of passengers transported to and from Schiphol increased by almost 8 percent to 66.8 million travelers.

As typically happens, the third quarter saw the most flights, due to the school and construction holidays. August was the busiest month with over 49,000 flights and 7.4 million passengers transported. The quietest day was Tuesday, January 16, with only 131,000 arriving or departing passengers.

According to CBS, three-quarters of all passengers traveled within Europe last year. Spain was by far the most popular destination, followed by the United Kingdom and the United States. Approximately 6 million airline passengers traveled between the U.S. and an airport in the Netherlands.