Over $6.5 Billion to be Spent to Upgrade Schiphol Airport

Royal Schiphol Group, the owner and operator of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Rotterdam The Hague Airport and Lelystad Airport, on Friday announced the biggest investment plan of $6.65 billion to improve the facilities at Schiphol airport between 2024 and 2029.

The investment is largest in Schiphol airport’s history, to improve its infrastructure, working conditions and service towards passengers and airlines. Last year, the Group said that it will be spending around $3.32 billion into catching up on maintenance and upgrades between 2024 and 2027.

Important parts of the airport infrastructure – including Pier C, the baggage basement, climate-control systems, escalators, aircraft stands and taxiways – are due to undergo major maintenance or need renewing. Pier A will be completed and new construction projects, such as the new baggage basement, will start.

A continuously increasing number of passengers (+9%) have found their way back to Royal Schiphol Group’s airports as their gateway to the world. In the first half year of 2024, the airports welcomed 36.1 million passengers. 31.8 million passengers (+11%) flew to, from or via Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. The number of flights to and from Schiphol was 230,417 (+12%).

The interim results of 2024 underlined Schiphol’s path towards financial recovery after several difficult years. In the first half year, Schiphol Group’s underlying net result was $109.79 million compared with $48.79 million, while the operational cash flow after investments stood at $208.49 million.

Many Miles to Go

Schipol Group’s CEO Pieter Van Oord said that infrastructure has been the foundation of their service, but is currently far from what they wanted to offer their passengers as a quality airport in the Netherlands.

“The major investment plan of $6.65 is crucial to bring back passenger satisfaction and top service to our airlines. At the same time, we need to restore the balance between the benefits and burdens of Schiphol. We are and will remain committed to reducing our noise impact on our surroundings and to improving the working conditions of all employees at our airport,” he said.

Despite a smooth operational performance this May and summer holidays, overall passenger satisfaction is not at the required level, the Group said.

Schiphol Group’s Chief Financial Officer Robert Carsouw said that although it was encouraging to see that the financial results were improving and that the balance sheet was strong, the Group’s overall financial performance was not yet satisfactory.

Increasing operational costs and the investment portfolio put heavy pressure on the Group’s current and long-term cash flows. It is in everyone’s interest that Schiphol once again becomes a high-quality airport with robust infrastructure and excellent service to our passengers and airlines.

“Our investments in the next five years are larger than ever before and fundamental to achieve this. Realising our ambitions require a significant step-up and acceleration of our operational cash flows, without losing focus on our competitiveness,” he added.

Outlook for 2024

The monthly traffic numbers of 2024 continued to increase and were coming towards the pre-COVID levels. On peak days during the May and summer period, there were more departing passengers than in 2019.

For the full year 2024, Schiphol expects total passenger numbers at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol to be between 65 and 68 million. The expected number of flights for the full year is between 470,000 and 473,000. A further increase in passenger numbers is expected as the average number of passengers per aircraft will continue to rise.