Schiphol unconcerned port fees will price it out of market; Hoping for traveler record

Schiphol expects to come close to the 2019 record in terms of passenger numbers this year, CEO Pieter van Oord said when presenting the annual figures on Friday. He’s not worried that the planned hike in port charges will price the airport out of the market, he added.

Last year, 66.8 million passengers traveled through Schiphol. In 2019, the last year before the coronavirus crisis paralyzed aviation, that was 71.7 million. “That year we carried out almost 500,000 flights. In the new system, we would go to a maximum of 478,000 flights,” the CEO said. “But the number of passengers per plane is increasing.” Airlines are using larger aircraft.

Schiphol handled 473,815 flight movements in 2024. Schiphol has noticed that the demand for air travel is still high, despite the increased ticket prices. As a result, the airport company expects both the number of flights and the number of passengers to increase further this year.

According to him, passenger numbers are still lagging due to the operation of KLM, the largest airline at Schiphol. KLM currently uses fewer aircraft partly due to staff shortages. “But we are working hard on that,” Van Oord said. “When KLM is 100 percent operational again, I expect that we will almost be at the numbers we had in 2019. He also takes into account KLM’s fleet renewal, which includes larger aircraft.

Van Oord also said that Schiphol is not pricing itself out of the market by further increasing port charges. According to him, Schiphol has been relatively cheap for airlines in recent years. “We were the cheapest and grew the fastest, but in 2022, we hit a wall. The rate increases were implemented within that context,” said Van Oord.

Schiphol wants to increase the port charges that airlines pay to use the airport by 41 percent from April. This is necessary to enable the major investments in Schiphol, in the quality of the Netherlands’ largest airport. “That comes with a bill and airlines are not happy with that. But they are worthwhile investments. Airlines also recognize the lack of space and that a high-quality airport is in their interest,” said Van Oord.

The airlines will likely pass on the port charges increase in their ticket prices. It is expected that tickets for passengers departing from Schiphol will increase by 15 euros. On Friday, critical airlines plan to file a complaint with the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM), with which they will attempt to stop the increase.

Schiphol Chief Financial Officer Robert Carsouw is not too worried. “If the ACM rejects the increase, we will have to go back to the drawing board. But we assume that the rate increase will go ahead and that the ACM will agree with us.”

The Schiphol Group, which also includes Eindhoven Airport, Rotterdam The Hague Airport, and Lelystad Airport, achieved a turnover of over 2.2 billion euros last year, compared to over 1.8 billion euros a year earlier. Adjusted for once-off income and expenses, 280 million euros remained, compared to 101 million euros a year earlier. The free cash flow - the amount of money that actually comes in or flows out - was 405 million euros negative last year. This is the result of investments.

Schiphol reported earlier this year that it had invested a record 1 billion euros in 2024, over 40 percent more than the previous year. Half of this amount went to maintenance and repairs, and the other half to sustainability and innovation. Last summer, the airport company announced that it would also be making billions in investments in infrastructure, working conditions, and services in the coming years. A total of 6 billion euros over a period of five years.