Schiphol airport needs an extra 400 to 500 military police officers to beef up security in the light of increasing terrorism threats, says airport director Jos Nijhuis.

Nijhuis said the airport had about 40 days when it handled more than 200,000 passengers in 2016, up from just a few such days in 2015.

The Schiphol director said the current plan to add another 135 full-time police officers was inadequate. At present 1,800 military police are stationed at Schiphol.

‘That is about the same number as in 2008 and 2009,’ he said. ‘But both the threat and the number of passengers has gone up sharply. Action really needs to be taken.’

Nijhuis made the comments in an interview published in the Financieele Dagblad on Monday. Schiphol processed some 60 million passengers last year.