Schiphol nears maximum movements, passengers up 7.6% in 2017

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport handled a record 68.4 million passengers in 2017, a 7.6% increase over 2016, the airport authority said.

But the Amsterdam airport is sailing close to its maximum permitted 500,000 air transport movements, with 496,747 take offs and landings in 2017, an increase of 3.7% over the previous year.

Cargo volume was 5.3% higher at 1.75 million tonnes. Schiphol had connections to 326 other airports, a rise of four over 2016.

Eindhoven airport, which like all regional airports is owned by the Schiphol group, saw its passenger volume soar 19.4% to 5.7 million passengers, while Rotterdam/The Hague airport registered a 5.3% rise in passenger numbers to 1.7 million. All figures are preliminary. The definitive figures will be disclosed upon publication of Schiphol’s financial statements on 16 February.

Rankings

Based on 2017 figures, Schiphol is the 12th busiest in the world and third busiest in Europe.  Atlanta remained the busiest, handling 103.2 million passengers last year. The US airport was followed by Beijing (94.4 million) and Dubai, with 83.6 million passengers.

London’s Heathrow was the busiest airport in Europe in 2017, handling 75.7 million passengers and is followed by Charles de Gaulle in Paris, then Schiphol.

‘The busiest routes from Amsterdam airport – with its six runways – are to Heathrow, Barcelona, Paris, Rome and Gatwick,’ according to the Telegraph.

Schiphol is one of the world’s oldest airports, having been established as a military airbase in 1916 and used by civilian aircraft since 1920.

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