Schiphol’s management is forgetting the connection with its most important target group: the holiday passenger. This is what ANVR director Frank Oostdam writes on X (the former Twitter) in response to statements by Schiphol CEO Ruud Sondag in the Telegraaf, in which he indicates that holidaymakers are not welcome at Schiphol in the future. Sondag is still advocating the opening of Lelystad Airport and thus seems to open the arena again. According to him, the race for the new airport is not over yet, even though the House of Representatives passed a motion two weeks ago that Lelystad Airport should not be allowed to open for holiday traffic. “The decision not to open Lelystad Airport for holiday flights is not yet final,” Sondag told the newspaper. ‘It seems logical to move traffic to a location where, on balance, there is less nuisance. At Schiphol, we want to focus on global air traffic, the hub. Holidaymakers are no longer welcome at Schiphol, also because we want to close them at night. We have a lot of resonance with this in politics in The Hague.’ Oostdam’s response to X is short but powerful.
“For an airport that prides itself on optimal connections, they now forget the connection with two-thirds of the customers. Two-thirds of passengers at Schiphol have a holiday and family visit motive. That seems to me to be a particularly relevant target group. Apparently not for Schiphol’s management.’ It remains to be seen whether Schiphol’s new CEO, Pieter van Oord, will embrace the legacy of Sondag and his fellow directors. Van Oord will take up the position of CEO of the airport on 1 June. Schiphol announced its figures for the 2023 financial year last Friday; 22 million euros in profit (after a loss of 77 million in 2022) and almost 62 million passengers (almost 10 million more than a year earlier). (Archive photo TravMagazine).
