Amsterdam airport slides into loss after ‘poor’ year

Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport posted an annual loss on Friday after severe staff shortages led to massive lines, lost luggage and flight cancellations last year.

“Never before in Schiphol’s history have we disappointed so many travellers and airlines as in 2022,” said Ruud Sondag, Royal Schiphol Group’s chief executive.

The global aviation industry struggled to cope with a surge in travel last year as the world reopened in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Large layoffs during the pandemic led to massive staff shortages — especially at security screening — leading to long queues at Schiphol airport, sometimes stretching far outside terminals.

Schiphol conceded in its 2022 earnings report that it had “poor financial results” as it posted a net loss of 77 million euros ($81 million).

Revenue almost doubled, however, to 1.5 billion euros.

Sondag took over in October after the chaos led to the resignation of his predecessor, Dick Benschop.

Last year will “go down as a bad chapter in our own history books”, Sondag said.

“But it is also a chapter we will not forget, so that all new chapters we write will be better. “We are working hard on this, and in 2022 we started to implement structural improvements,” he added.

Some 52.5 million passengers passed through Schiphol’s gates last year, compared 25.5 million in 2021.

Schiphol set new limits to the number of travellers for the spring break in May, Dutch news reports said, leading to fears of renewed queing.