Holidaymaker indispensable player for Schiphol
Two-thirds of all passengers at Schiphol have a leisure motive for flying. They fly to go on vacation, visit family and friends. This ratio applies to both direct flights and transfer flights, and also applies to large and small destinations.
Research carried out by research bureau SEO for travel umbrella organization ANVR shows that the classic pigeonhole thinking at Schiphol is over. Segments are strongly intertwined and dependent on each other, which means that the airport benefits from diversity in terms of airlines and types of passengers.
Network companies, intended to maintain the intercontinental network in particular, are dependent on transfer passengers. And - contrary to what is often assumed - the majority of these transfer passengers (63%) travel with a leisure motive.
Business and leisure cannot do without each other, but actually reinforce each other. Where business is responsible for expanding the flight network, leisure is responsible for increasing the flight frequency at destinations. The research shows that focusing only on the development of business destinations is too one-sided and does not benefit prosperity.
The majority travel for non-business purposes
The extensive Schiphol network is of great economic importance, but is now limited in growth. It is therefore important to know which choices to make.
The SEO survey, conducted in the first months of 2019, shows that 2/3 of passengers travel for non-business purposes. This share has even grown from 2000 to now from 60% to 67%. This is 65% for network companies and 75% for point-to-point companies. At least 63% of transfer passengers, especially relevant for the maintenance of the intercontinental destination network, travel with a leisure motive. This is even 70% of the network passengers departing at Schiphol.
Of all commercial passenger flights from Schiphol, 83% fly to a so-called mainport destination. Two-thirds of these passengers travel with a leisure motive. It is therefore these large numbers of leisure travelers that enable a high flight frequency at the destinations.
Incidentally, 20% still fly to non-mainport destinations with a business motive. However, this compartmentalised thinking is no longer of this time; travelers and airlines are dealing with a hybrid sector and entanglement is inherent in it.
Leisure contributes to prosperity
With 375.000 flights, network companies at Schiphol annually contribute € 2,7 billion to Dutch prosperity. 50% (€ 1,4 billion) of this is attributable to leisure passengers.
- Point-to-point airlines contribute € 110.000 billion to prosperity annually with 1,7 flights. 73% (€ 1,3 billion) of this is attributable to leisure passengers.
- Flights to mainport destinations contribute € 3,6 billion annually to prosperity. 48% (€ 1,7 billion) of this is attributable to leisure passengers.
- Flights to non-mainport destinations contribute € 1,4 billion to prosperity annually. 80% (€ 1,1 billion) of this can be attributed to leisure passengers.
Leisure and business reinforce each other
In the social debate about the expansion of Schiphol, the economic importance is often pointed out. According to many, any expansion of capacity at Schiphol should therefore be used to increase the number of flights to business destinations.
SEO has calculated the effects of 2% annual growth at Schiphol; moderate growth with still capacity scarcity. They then calculated various future scenarios when allocating this extra capacity to destinations with a lot of business traffic.
The SEO calculations show that a one-sided focus on the development of business destinations is not welfare-optimal. It appears that distributing the extra capacity proportionally across all destinations produces more prosperity, because more Dutch travelers benefit from this.