Made in Holland - Saba

Amsterdam Airport SchipholTesting ground for anairport’s tricks of the tradeAs a large airport in a small country, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is faced with many differentchallenges. However, like any good company, Schiphol is constantly making a virtue of necessityby employing a wide range of technological innovations – with an entire airport sector continuingto develop in Schiphol’s wake. And who better to tell us more than Joop Krul, Director of AirportDevelopment for the Schiphol Group: “The one-stop model is what we’re ideally aiming for”.By Marc MijerAmsterdam, the Netherlands’ capital city, has been a logisticalhub through the centuries: back when the city was first foundedin the twelfth century fishermen would transfer their catch fromthe Zuyder Zee onto other boats at the Dam in the city centreto be transported inland via a network of natural waterways. Inthe Golden Age, Amsterdam was the home port for the vesselsof the Dutch East India Company (the world’s first public limitedcompany), which brought the city unprecedented riches fromthe colonies. After the industrial revolution in the nineteenthcentury, the monumental Central Station took on the port’s roleto a significant extent because the railway linked the port to therest of the Netherlands and the other countries of Europe.It was not much later – in 1916 – when Schiphol Airport wasbuilt just outside the city on the reclaimed land that had beenHaarlem’s Lake. The decades that followed saw the airportgrow in leaps and bounds to become the most important newlogistical hub for Amsterdam, the region and – ultimately – theentire country of the Netherlands. From the end of the 1980sonwards, Schiphol ceased to be just an airport and becamea ‘mainport’, i.e. an entity that is greater than the sum of itscapacity, accessibility and high-quality service. In the outerring there is the competing region, where good infrastructure, ahigh level of available knowledge, a concentration of suppliersand an excellent living environment make Amsterdam and thesurrounding area an attractive location for many companiesto establish a base.” Krul knows better than anyone thatthose companies come from far and wide. He mentions theexamples of the American company Cisco Systems sending itsIT consultants all over the world and the Japanese companyYamaha getting its engine parts to the back of beyond in notime at all. “And so that’s why they chose locations close by –or even at – Schiphol Airport. The network, the airport and theregion combine to form a mainport that is stronger than thesum of its parts.”Fly wheelA major factor in Schiphol’s success is the cooperation betweenthe airport, KLM as the ‘home company’ and the Dutchgovernment. One particular example of this cooperation is thehub-spoke network set up by KLM and its American partnerNorthwest Airlines in the early 1990s on both sides of the“Our great strength lies in the fact that we make innovations possibleand provide a testing ground for them”companies and activities, which have turned the airport and theAmsterdam region into an international hub where streams ofpeople, goods, money and information all come together.Joop Krul, Director of Airport Development at the SchipholGroup, explains how it all works by drawing three circles (or‘rings’). “Schiphol Airport serves an enormous worldwidenetwork of 250 destinations. The only European airport withmore destinations is Frankfurt Airport. Around the inner ring– the network – you can see the competing airports, whichstand out because of their attractive visiting costs, reliableAtlantic Ocean. The Dutch State made an essential contributionby becoming the first European country to sign a bilateral openskies treaty with the USA. Schiphol acted as facilitator for theresulting gigantic network of destinations and the related flightmovements by organising extra terminal space and handlingcapacity.However, there is one other element that has made Schipholone of the highest ranked airports in many trade and consumersurveys for decades, and that is the use of numerous examplesof innovative aviation technology. From extensive do-it-8 Holland Airport Technology