11
September
2020
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10:00
Europe/Amsterdam

Traffic and transport figures for August 2020

The amount of fights to and from Schiphol in August decreased by 49% to a total of 23,125 (compared to 45,122 in August 2019). This amounted to 1.85 million passengers travelling to, from or via Schiphol (compared to 6.81 million in August 2019). This means that the number of passengers decreased by 73% relative to 2019. The number of cargo flights increased to 2,188, which is 83% more than in the same month last year. In spite of this, the tonnage transported was 8% lower.

Summer holidays

The start of the holiday season in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe led to a growth in holiday-related traffic in July. Several airlines increased the amount of air traffic movements at the start of August by flying to more destinations and flying more frequently. In August, the busiest day in terms of air traffic movements saw almost 850 departing and arriving flights, and the busiest day in terms of the amount of travellers at Schiphol saw 73,000 passengers. While the number of fights remained steady, there was a drop in the number of passengers from mid-August onwards. A decline in traveller numbers is a normal occurrence at the end of the summer holidays, but now at a lower level than usual.

The figure below clearly shows the development of traffic and transport at Schiphol during the summer period:

Global traffic lagging behind

International air traffic has not seen the same recovery that Europe has. There were more than 1.6 million passengers flying to and from European destinations in August, while outside of Europe that number was almost 250,000. The proportions were different in August 2019, with 30% of passengers flying to and from destinations outside of Europe. Cargo flights are an exception – they often fly to international destinations.

Click here for the complete overview of traffic and transport figures for August 2020.

Looking ahead at September

It appears that the recovery from COVID-19’s impact is being curbed by the uncertainty about whether or not to travel within Europe (due to increasing coronavirus infections and negative travel advisories). We expect the amount of daily flights to vary between 700 and 900, and the number of passengers to decrease to between 35,000 and 60,000 per day.