The number of passengers passing through airports in the Netherlands rose by more than 10.5% to 20.4 million in the second quarter of 2017, the national statistics office CBS said on Wednesday.

This figure nearly equates to the numbers handled in the third quarter of 2016. The third quarter is traditionally the busiest at Dutch airports as it coincides with the holiday period.

Never before have so many passengers made use of the Dutch airports in a second quarter as this year, the CBS said.

The transport sector as a whole turned over 4.5% more in the second quarter of 2017  year-on-year. The CBS noted that the number of companies active in the sector rose by 4.8% in the period.