Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is one of the largest and busiest airports in the world. It’s the main airport of the . It handled nearly 64 million passengers and 1.7 million tons freight. It’s also the hub for KLM, , TUI Fly Netherlands, Corendon Dutch Airlines, EasyJet, Delta Airlines, Jet Airways, Small Planet Airlines, Vueling and .

History of Schiphol At the first time, Schiphol was a military airbase for the Dutch Air-force. It was opened in 1916 and the first aircraft landed with two passengers. Civil aircrafts started the use of Schiphol in the end of 1920. From then, the military role of the airport was lost completely.

In 1940 had Schiphol 4 asphalt runways that all were 1020 meters long. In the meantime, the airport were captured by the Germans and renamed the airport with ‘Fliegerhorst Schiphol’. In the meantime, the airport was still get bombed by other air- forces. When the Operation Market Garden has started, the Germans destroyed the airport. A new terminal building was finished in 1949 and it was decided to become the primary airport of the Netherlands.

Since the new terminal was finished, the airport still keep growing. Schiphol now has 6 runways, 1 terminal which is divided into three departure halls and 165 boarding gates.

Terminal

As i said, there are three departure halls in one terminal with 32 check-in desks. Departure hall 1 consists pier B and C and is operated by flights that are departing for destinations in the Schengen region. Departure hall 2 consists pier D and E, with pier D as the largest pier. There are two floors at pier D: The upper floor for Schengen flights and the lower floor for non- Schengen flights. Pier E is only for non-Schengen flights.

Departure hall 3 consists pier F,G and H/M. Pier F is mainly used only by wide-body planes and pier G is the only pier where the A380’s park. Pier G gets used by narrow-body and wide- body planes. Pier H/M is the pier of the low-cost airlines. Pier H is for non-Schengen flights and pier M Schengen flights. There’s a part of airport special for stores and restaurants. It’s called ‘Schiphol Plaza’ and you can find it before you ass the security control, downstairs the departure halls. After passing security control there are still stores and restaurants available.

Tower

Schiphol has one air traffic control tower with a height of 101 meters and was the tallest in the world when it was constructed in 1991.

Runways

Schiphol has six runways that are called: Zwanenburgbaan, Oostbaan, Aalsmeerbaan, Buitenveldertbaan, Kaagbaan and Polderbaan. Polderbaan is the largest runway of Schiphol with a length of 3800 meters.

Airlines

90 commercial airlines and and 26 cargo airlines operates flights from Schiphol