The number of air passengers flying to and from the five largest Dutch airports fell by 71 percent last year from 81.2 million to 23.6 million. The number of passengers has never been so small this century, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reports Monday.
The drop in demand for airline tickets is the result of the corona crisis. Due to the pandemic, it has been inadvisable to travel abroad for months. In addition, measures by national governments, such as a quarantine period, mean that people are less likely to board a plane.
Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the number of passengers flying to and from the five national airports in the Netherlands has therefore fallen sharply. However, a small rebound in the summer months, when several countries relaxed corona measures, could not be continued.
Schiphol, the largest airport in our country, received more than 70 percent fewer passengers with 20.9 million passengers. Eindhoven Airport, the second largest airport in the Netherlands, transported 2.1 million passengers, 69 percent less. In percentage terms, Groningen Airport Eelde was the biggest loser: the number of travelers there decreased by 90 percent to 17,500.
Despite the outbreak of COVID-19, people in 2020 largely flew to the same countries as in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, slightly more (1.5 percent) traveled from and to the countries within the EU, with the top three most popular countries remained the same: the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy.
While the number of passengers and the number of flights decreased, the number of cargo flights actually increased in 2020. The amount of cargo transported by air did decrease: a decrease of 6.2 percent to 1.6 million tons.
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