The first six months of the year for the Dutch airport Amsterdam Schiphol signaled the beginning of a turnaround for passengers, employees and the airport’s future plans.
“Passengers again had a good travel experience and Schiphol stepped up its initiatives to improve working conditions”, said the airport and KLM hub in a statement. Another development that characterized the first six months was the plan presented by Schiphol to be calmer, cleaner and better. The Group’s underlying net income for the first half amounted to 44 million euros. Even though the number of passengers is higher than last year, the aviation sector is loss-making due to a higher level of operational costs, the airport said. Ruud Sondag, CEO explains that the objective was “above all to offer passengers a pleasant journey again during the holiday season”. If he considers this objective achieved, he specifies that “we and our partners must continue to improve. »
Recall that theamsterdam airport underperformed in 2022 due to issues in the post-covid. To support the recovery from the operational issues, Schiphol says it incurred additional costs of around 120 million euros. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol connected the Netherlands to 313 direct destinations in 2022 (2021: 296), of which 129 were intercontinental. Schiphol held first place in Europe for direct connectivity. Globally, Schiphol was in 2022 the third best hub connected in the world.
The turnaround in results doesn’t just apply to the short-term passenger experience. This also applies to the reduction of nuisance, improving working conditions and a long-term vision of quality investments at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Sondag asserts that “the new standard for Schiphol is that we walk the talk”. “In a short time, we have significantly improved the passenger experience, improved rest areas for employees, ordered nearly fifty lifting aids, made the decision to build a new modern baggage basement and presented eight decisions which will lead to a quieter and cleaner environment. »
During the first half of 2023, Royal Schiphol Group noted a new reprise passenger numbers since the COVID-19 pandemic and expects this trend to continue for the remainder of 2023. Passengers have had “a good travel experience during the May holiday period”, which is traditionally a peak time in terms of traffic. The travel experience and good operational performance remain a strong point for Royal Schiphol Group airports. For the whole year 2023the airport expects the total number of passengers at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol to reach between 60 and 64 million. The number of flights expected for the whole year is between 430,000 and 445,000. “Despite continued inflationary pressures, consumer spending on air travel remained resilient in the first half of 2023 and was supported by strong pent-up demand. However, economic uncertainty remains”the statement said.
