Description
Schiphol is an important European airport, ranking as Europe’s 4th busiest and the world's 14th busiest by total passenger traffic in 2011. It also ranks as the world’s 6th busiest by international passenger traffic and the world’s 17th largest for cargo tonnage.
49.8 million passengers passed through the airport in 2011, a 10% increase compared with 2010.
Schiphol's main competitors in terms of passenger traffic and cargo throughput are London Heathrow Airport, Frankfurt Airport, Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport and Madrid-Barajas Airport.
In 2010, 65.9% of passengers using the airport flew to and from Europe, 11.7% to and from North America and 8.8% to and from Asia; cargo volume was mainly between Schiphol and Asia (45%) and North America (17%).
In 2010, 106 carriers provided a total of 301 destinations on a regular basis. Passenger destinations were offered by 91 airlines. Direct (non-stop) destinations grew by 9 to 274. Regular destinations serviced exclusively by full freighters (non-passenger) grew with 8 to a total of 27.
Schiphol has six runways, one of which is used mainly by general aviation aircraft. The northern end of the Polderbaan, the name of the last runway to be constructed, is 7 km (4.3 mi) north of the control tower, causing lengthy taxi times (up to 20 min) to the terminal. Plans have been made for a seventh runway.
The airport is built as one large terminal (single terminal concept), split into three large departure halls, which converge again once airside. The most recent of these was completed in 1994, and expanded in 2007 with a new part, named Terminal 4, although this part is not recognised as a separate building. Plans for further terminal expansion exist, including the construction of a separate new terminal between the Zwanenburgbaan and Polderbaan runways that would end the one-terminal concept.
Because of intense traffic and high landing fees, some low cost carriers decided to move their flights to smaller airports, such as Rotterdam The Hague Airport and Eindhoven Airport. Many low cost carriers (like EasyJet or Bmibaby) continue to operate from Schiphol, using the low-cost H-pier.
Schiphol is the home base of Arkefly, Corendon Dutch Airlines, KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines), Martinair and Transavia. Schiphol was the home base of Amsterdam Airlines, which ceased operations on 31 October 2011
The Schiphol Air traffic control tower, with a height of 101 m (331 ft), was the tallest in the world when constructed in 1991. Schiphol is geographically one of the world's lowest major commercial airports. The entire airport is below sea level; the lowest point sits at 11 ft (3.4 m) below sea level (or 4.5 ft (1.4 m) below the Dutch Normaal Amsterdams Peil (NAP)); the runways are around 3 m (9.8 ft) below NAP.
Schiphol is equipped with 18 double jetway gates in preparation for airlines introducing the Airbus A380. Emirates was the first airline to the A380 to Schiphol in August 2012, deploying the aircraft on its daily Dubai-Amsterdam service.
Read more about this topic: Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
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