LONDON – Almost 4.9 million passengers flew from, via or to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in October 2022. In October 2021 that number was 3.7 million, in October 2020 1.1 million and 6.4 million passengers in October 2019.
The number of commercial flights to and from Schiphol was 36,365 (+16% compared to 2021, +85% compared to 2020 and -18% compared to 2019).
The number of cargo flights was 1,585 (-21% compared to 2021, -26% compared to 2020, +18% compared to 2019). The transported tonnage decreased with 16% compared to last year, -11% compared to 2020 and -13% compared to 2019.
Passengers
Of the 4.9 million passengers in October almost 1.7 million passengers had a transfer at Schiphol. The passengers with a transfer were 850,000 unique passengers, who are counted two times in the international counting method: as an arriving passenger and departing passenger.
3.4 million passengers travelled from or to a destination within Europe, almost 1.5 million outside of Europe.
Cargo
The number of all-cargo flights has decreased from 2,019 to 1,585, compared to 2021. The total transported volume was 125,358 tonnes in October 2022.
Extension of compensation scheme
The impressive October throughput of passengers at Amsterdam Schiphol did not come without cost however.
At the close of the month, the Airport advised its intention to extend the compensation scheme for travellers who in recent months arrived at the airport on time but missed their flight as a result of unprecedented waiting times at security.
Travellers who incurred costs in this period as a result of missing their flight due to long queues at the security check can submit a compensation claim to the airport until 30 November. The original compensation scheme ran until 11 August.
Costs covered by the compensation scheme include those incurred due to rebooking a flight or arranging a replacement flight, alternative transportation or additional travel expenses for getting to Schiphol again or to another airport
The compensation scheme now applies to the period from 12 August to 31 October. Schiphol stated that they were doing this because queues were still very long on some days during that period due to a shortage of security staff.
During the autumn holiday, waiting times for the security check were limited.
Investing in measures
Schiphol implemented this compensation scheme in the summer because travellers had nowhere to go in order to claim these costs back. Schiphol feels responsible for this group of travellers and therefore set up the scheme.
The possibility to claim compensation has thus now been extended until 31 October 2022.
Schiphol has recently taken extra measures to tackle the queues resulting from staff shortages. For example, Schiphol is investing around 100 million in measures to help solve the issue of staff shortages, including at the security companies.
Travellers wishing to submit a compensation request to Schiphol can go to schiphol.nl/compensation and send the form. Schiphol state they will then assess the requests based on the conditions that have been set.
