Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport increased traffic to 66.8 million passengers in 2024, which was an 8 per cent rise on the previous year’s total.
The Netherlands hub saw total flights increase to just under 474,000 for the year, which was up by 7 per cent on the previous year’s aircraft movements. Schiphol had imposed a “limited reduction” in capacity to 483,000 flights during 2024 to “relieve pressure” during peak times.
Schiphol’s improved traffic remained below pre-Covid levels in 2019 when it catered for 71.7 million passengers and nearly 497,000 annual flights. The number of direct destinations served from the airport has also dropped from 332 in 2019 to 301 last year.
Despite this, Schiphol was still the second-best connected airport in Europe (behind Istanbul Airport) and the fifth best airport globally, according to the ACI Airport Industry Connectivity Report 2024.
Schiphol’s figures show that 45.3 million passengers were travelling to or from European destinations, while 21.5 million were travelling on long-haul flights. Schiphol added that its top destinations in 2024 were the UK, Spain, Italy, the US and Turkey.
The airport’s capacity will be restricted to 478,000 annual flights from this year by the new Dutch coalition government as part of its attempts to reduce noise pollution – this is down from Schiphol’s pre-2024 limit of 500,000 flights per year.
Schiphol’s figures contrast with London Heathrow, which set a new annual record of 83.9 million passengers during 2024 – the first time the UK hub has beaten its pre-Covid traffic.