Dutch flag carrier, KLM, has warned that Schiphol Airport is likely to become the world’s most expensive airport for airlines, with prices set to rise by 41% in 2025.
This increase will result in airlines paying an extra €15 ($16) per departing passenger from 2027 onwards, with the airlines CEO Marjan Rintal stating that the price rises were ‘unreasonable and unwise’, elaborating:
“Unreasonable, because Schiphol is placing the costs of all setbacks and COVID-19 entirely on the airlines. Unwise, because in doing so, the airport undermines its competitive position as an international hub. This poses risks for the hub function, the connectivity of the Netherlands, and our economy.”
This is doubly damning for the airport, given that Schiphol is KLM’s main hub, along with Air France, as part of the Air France-KLM Partnership.
For its part, Schiphol has stated that it will offset €100 million in a voluntary contribution to lessen fees, and to continue current passenger capacity. In an effort to reduce noise pollution, there are plans to lower the price for quieter aircraft.
Robert Carsouw, Chief Financial Officer of the Royal Schiphol Group, who owns Schiphol Airport, said in a statement:
“This sharp increase in charges is necessary to invest in the desired quality and sustainability at Schiphol, to improve services to airlines and passengers, and to provide decent working conditions for all people working at Schiphol. In addition, by making it significantly more expensive or even impossible to fly with noisier aircraft and to fly at night, we are contributing to the reduction of nuisance to our neighbours.”
Schiphol and KLM
Schiphol Airport began as a military airport in 1916 on land that had been reclaimed for a low-level lake in the 1850s, with the first civil flight taking place in December 1920.
At the outbreak of World War Two, the airport was captured by Germany and renamed Fliegerhorst Schiphol. After being bombed throughout the later stages of the war, the entire airport was rebuilt post-war. The first civilian terminals were built in 1949.
KLM’s first flight took place in May 1920, with a flight between London and Schiphol. By the mid-1930s, KLM were flying routinely to Asia, the first European airline to do so.
After almost the entire KLM fleet was destroyed during the war, the company spent the post-war period rebuilding its infrastructure as well as planning new routes, with a direct service between Holland and New York launched in 1946.
In 1960, KLM purchased the first Douglas D-8s, announcing the airline’s arrival into the Jet Age.
In 1967, Schiphol was expanded, with KLM being the primary user of the renamed ‘Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.’ The main terminal is still being used to this day, expanding for a second time in the late 1970s to accommodate the Boeing 747 aircraft.
KLM remains an integral part of Schiphol Airport, with the airline largely synonymous with the airport. Whilst over seventy airlines fly from the Airport, KLM remains by far the largest. Schiphol is also KLM’s primary hub, meaning that any reduction, or worse, removal of flights will have a dramatic effect on the airport’s income, certainly outweighing any increase in prices they may have planned.
So are KLM making too much out of the price rises, or will Schiphol have to look at its economic plans to safeguard the future of the airport? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
