Headline:
August Sees Schiphol Airport’s Busiest Month Since Start of Coronavirus Pandemic
Subheading:
Passenger numbers surge as Schiphol approaches pre-pandemic levels, signaling a strong recovery in air travel.
Lead:
August 2024 marked the busiest month at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, with the airport handling significantly more passengers than the previous year. The increase in traffic indicates a robust recovery in the aviation sector, approaching the levels seen in the summer before the pandemic struck.
Body:
Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport experienced its highest volume of passengers last month since October 2019, with 6.4 million travelers passing through its terminals. This figure represents a six percent increase compared to August 2023 and is nearly on par with the 6.8 million passengers recorded in August 2019.
The airport also saw a rise in flight operations, with over 43,000 flights in August, marking a nearly four percent increase from the previous year. This is the highest number of flights in a single month since October 2019.
The aviation industry was severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, with passenger numbers and flight operations plummeting in 2020. The lowest point came in April 2020, when Schiphol recorded only 4,200 flights and fewer than 127,000 passengers. Since then, the airport has seen a steady increase in both flights and passengers, although the recovery has been more gradual in other parts of the world.
Last month, Schiphol saw the most direct travel to and from the airport, with Spain emerging as the most popular destination. Other popular destinations included the United Kingdom, Greece, Italy, and the United States.
The figures also revealed that there were nearly 2.2 million transfer passengers and 1.1 million unique passengers. Under the internationally accepted counting method, these passengers were counted twice, once as arrivals and once as departures.
Schiphol’s CEO, Pieter van Oord, expressed optimism during a press conference at the end of last month, predicting that the airport would see more passengers next year than before the pandemic. You see that people want to fly. The planes are full despite price increases of between 50 and 100 percent over the last four years, he noted.
Minister of Infrastructure, Barry Madlener, recently indicated that Schiphol would not need to reduce its flight operations as much as previously expected due to the new government. The maximum number of flights per year is now likely to be between 475,000 and 485,000, rather than the previously proposed reduction from 460,000 to 470,000. Madlener has sought advice from the European Commission on these plans.
The surge in passenger numbers and flight operations at Schiphol is a positive sign for the aviation industry, suggesting that the demand for air travel is on the rise as the world continues to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
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