Schiphol expects cautious recovery

5 januari 2010

Some 43.5 million passengers travelled via Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in 2009, representing a decrease of 8.4% compared to the previous year. The number of air transport movements declined by 8.7% to 391,000, and last year cargo transport fell by 18.4% to 1,279,000 million tonnes.

Jos Nijhuis, Schiphol Group President and CEO, announced these provisional traffic and transport figures during the company's New Year reception. The strong decline in passenger and cargo transport as well as air transport movements can be attributed to the global economic crisis and the impact of introducing flight tax. Schiphol Group expects passenger transport to recover cautiously by approximately 0.6% this year and cargo transport by 1%.

"The year began with the tragic Turkish Airlines crash in February. More recently the failed terrorist attack on the Amsterdam-Detroit flight has lead to extra security measures being taken for flights to the USA. The security scan that we have comprehensively tested at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol over the past three years will now be deployed for all flights to the USA by order of the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism. Another 60 security scans will be added to the existing 15 security scans."

In response to the fact that a journalist is said to have travelled to England with a hypodermic syringe, Jos Nijhuis stated that on flights to destinations other than the USA, based on a threat analysis carried out by the government authorities 100% body searches do not apply. Passengers travelling to these destinations are searched at random in accordance with the standards applicable to European airports. "Being called a terror airport by a number of U.K. daily papers is completely out of line and does not demonstrate any real knowledge of the subject at all," Jos Nijhuis said.


Refocused strategy
Schiphol Group reassessed its strategy in 2009 in order to enable the company to be better prepared to face the competition in the future as well. The company's new strategy focuses on maintaining the airport's social function and healthy business operations. As a consequence of the new strategy, a reorganisation was instituted in 2009, additional cost control measures were taken and investments postponed.

Own web TV channel
Jos Nijhuis today also launched Schiphol TV.com, the airport's own web TV channel, and a new logo that will be used for all Schiphol Group communications as from today.