All airports except Maastricht Aachen Airport reported an increase in flights. Maastricht saw a decline of nearly 10% in travellers and that is likely to worsen sharply when Ryanair cancels all flights from the airport from October 26, citing “excessive” increases in costs.

Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport remains by far the largest airport in the Netherlands, accounting for 87% of all flights to and from the country. Schiphol also handled more flights than in the same quarter last year.

Within the European Union, Schiphol ranks as the second busiest airport, after Charles de Gaulle in Paris. In 2024, 66.8 million people passed through Schiphol, compared with 70.3 million at the Paris hub.

The fastest growth was recorded at Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport, where passenger numbers jumped from 33.6 million in 2023 to 41 million in 2024 – a rise of 22%.

The Dutch government plans to reduce the maximum number of annual flights at Schiphol from 500,000 to 478,000 in November to limit noise pollution.

Legal proceedings about the flight cuts are ongoing in the Netherlands, with KLM, Delta, TUI, and airline groups including Barin, Airlines for America and Iata seeking to block the reduction.

Former transport minister Barry Madlener (PVV) decided in May to push ahead with the reduction despite criticism from the European Commission which said the required “balanced approach” under EU rules had not been properly followed.