The Seemingly Extraordinary Growth of Amsterdam Schiphol Placed into Perspective

This thesis addresses the growth of the Dutch hub airport Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS), by placing its growth figures into perspective of the European hub airport market. Firstly, the competitive features of the airport industry are studied by analysing the development it has gone through since the first airplane took off about 115 years ago. The same is hereafter done for the development of AMS in particular. After examining the factors influencing the growth of airports, this thesis concludes by running a regression analysis including growth figures of ten European hubs and its growth variables, in order to determine how the growth of AMS relates to competing hubs. Based on the results, no evidence was found for the statement that the growth of AMS is extraordinary in relation to other European hub airports, let alone statements that this growth is surprisingly high. Overall, the growth of AMS suits a fast-growing industry in which it has been growing generally ever since its establishment, like its competing European hub airports. To maintain its leading hub function and to keep up with the expected growth of the overall market in this coming years, solutions should be found for the capacity- and legislation constraints the airport is currently facing.