One of the world’s biggest airports admits it massively failed in 2022

Schiphol Airport shared a refreshingly honest account of its performance in 2022. Photo / Unsplash, 123rf

Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport has admitted 2022 was a year of major financial losses and poor customer experience.

It’s hard to own up to a job poorly done but that is exactly what Schipol Airport has done in a blunt statement released on Friday, February 17.

Titled ‘Schophol closes a poor 2022′ the statement said, despite being the third-best connected hub airport in the world and seeing strong growth in demand, it described its service as disappointing and said financial results were “poor”.

Not only did the airport report a loss of 28 million euros but CEO, Ruud Sondag said they did not provide good service to airlines or passengers.

“Never before in the history of Schipol have we disappointed so many travellers and airlines as in 2022,” he said.

Sondag commended the commitment and hard work of those who worked at Schipol but said the airport fell short when it came to making the necessary improvements.

“As a result, we have not been able to provide the service we wanted. 2022 will go down in our history books as a bad chapter,” he said.

He promised the company would learn from its mistakes.

“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 said.

We published our financial results for 2022 today. The underlying financial result of Schiphol Group amounted to a loss of 28 million euros despite a strong recovery in traffic. Upscaling issues have overshadowed the operational performance of Schiphol. https://t.co/UHHSJXmYCP pic.twitter.com/ZsPOdSXjRZ

— Schiphol (@Schiphol) February 17, 2023

Staff shortages and covid-related restrictions challenges caused significant issues for both the airport and travellers.

Passenger numbers more than doubled in 2022 compared to 2021, increasing from 25.5 million to 52.5 million. The number of flights also increased from 267,000 in 2021 to almost 400,000 in 2022.

However, due to increased costs, the airport saw a net loss of 77 million euros, compared to a profit of 104 million euros in 2021.

Meanwhile, passengers endured long queues, lost luggage and any delayed and cancelled flights.

Sondag was confident the airport could improve, both financially and for travellers.

“We have to do better. And I am convinced that we can,” he said.

The government has already announced plans to limit the maximum number of flights at Schipol to 440,000 per year but has not confirmed when this will be actioned.

Meanwhile, the airport plans to limit departures by around 5 per cent until May, due to a shortage of baggage handlers.