2022 a ‘poor year’ for Schiphol Group airports

Aerial view of the Tower at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.
Photo Credit: Ikreis, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Len Varley - Assistant Editor 3 Min Read
3 Min Read

LONDON – The Royal Schiphol Group has published what it has characterised as ‘poor financial results’ for 2022. The underlying financial result of Schiphol Group amounted to a loss of 28 million euros despite a strong recovery in traffic.

Upscaling issues have overshadowed the operational performance of Schiphol. To support recovery from the operational issues, Schiphol incurred extra costs of approximately 120 million euros.

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol connected the Netherlands to 313 direct destinations (compared with 2021: 296), 129 of which were intercontinental.

Schiphol held Europe’s top spot for direct connectivity, as shown by the ACI connectivity report 2022. Globally, Schiphol was the third best connected hub airport in the world.

An air of disappointment


Ruud Sondag, CEO of Royal Schiphol Group commented: “Never before in Schiphol’s history have we disappointed so many travellers and airlines as in 2022.”

“Our efforts and hard work did not lead to the necessary improvements in the system and, as a result, we were not able to provide the service we wanted. 2022 will therefore go down as a bad chapter in our own history books.”

“But it is also a chapter we will not forget, so that all new chapters we write will be better. We are working hard on this, and in 2022 we started to implement structural improvements. Because we have to do better. And I am convinced that we can.”

Traffic statistics


Air transport movements

Overall, there were were 397,646 air transport movements at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. That represents a 49% increase relative to 2021.

Cargo volumes

Cargo volumes at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol declined by 14% to 1.44 million tonnes. There were 18,340 cargo-only flights. That represents a 24% decline compared to 2021.

Passenger numbers

The total number of passengers at Royal Schiphol Group airports in the Netherlands increased by 110% to 60.8 million (compared with 2021: 28.9 million).

Financials

The underlying net result for the Schiphol Group for 2022 is a 28 million euros loss (2021: a loss of 287 million euros). Revenue increased by 82.7% to 1,491 million euros (2021: 816 million euros).

Projected outlook for 2023


During 2022, the Group saw a strong recovery in passenger numbers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Full traffic recovery towards pre-pandemic levels remains uncertain and is subject to several factors.

Amongst these are potential operational constraints to cope with the strong pick-up in demand, and – in the medium term – the announcement by the Dutch Government to cap the number of flight movements at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol to 440,000 as of November 2024.

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