71.3 million travellers passed through the five main airports in the Netherlands last year, as revealed by Statistics Netherlands (CBS), the country’s agency of statistics.
Such a figure marked a 16 per cent increase compared to 2022. Yet, it remains below pre-pandemic figures.
Last year, Dutch airports operated 506,000 commercial flights, nine per cent more than the previous year. Despite the increased passenger traffic and flights last year, air freight transport decreased by nine per cent to 1.4 million tonnes.
The majority of passengers (69.1 million) travelled through Schiphol Airport, which also operated 442,000 of the total flights. More specifically, the number of passengers welcomed by the Netherlands’ main airports in 2023 is as follows:
- Schiphol Airport of Amsterdam (61.9 million)
- Eindhoven Airport (6.9 million)
- The Hague Airport (2.2 million)
- Maastricht Aachen Airport (223,000)
- Groningen Airport Eelde (108,000)
Although total passenger traffic figures are still below those of 2019, Rotterdam, The Hague Airport, and Eindhoven Airport saw an increase in passengers compared to 2022 and even surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
CBS further unveiled that August was the busiest month throughout 2023. During this period, airports operated 48,100 flights and welcomed over seven million passengers.
Sunday, July 30 and Monday, August 7, were the busiest days of the year, with 246,000 passengers travelling through the Netherlands’ five major airports on those days.
On the other hand, January 24 of last year was the day with the fewest passengers recorded by the Netherlands airports, reaching 113,000. However, since 2021, the passenger traffic of these five airports has been increasing continuously.
In 2021, the number of air passengers amounted to 29.1 million; in 2022, to 61.2 million; and nearly 71.4 million passengers in 2023.
Over 73% of Air Passengers Travelled Within Europe
Of all passengers who travelled to and from the Netherlands last year, over 37 million flew within the EU, whereas 15.3 million travelled to and from other countries in Europe. Such a figure marks 73.4 per cent of the total passengers.
Last year, the highest number of passengers, 9.3 million, travelled to and from Spain, whereas 8.6 million flew to and from the United Kingdom.
In 2023, Barcelona-El Prat airport had the highest number of passengers flying to and from airports in the Netherlands, at 1.8 million. This Spanish airport was also the most popular in 2022, with 1.5 million passengers.
As per destinations outside Europe, the United States was the most popular one, with 5.8 million travellers.
Based on statistics recorded since 2014, the five main Netherlands airports welcomed the highest number of passengers in 2018 and 2019, with 79.6 million and 81.2 million passengers, respectively.
As in other airports worldwide, the number of passengers significantly decreased in 2020 due to the Covid-19 global pandemic, reaching 23.7 million.
