Schiphol is big. But just how big exactly?
Five runways, a terminal with seven piers, the Polderbaan Runway with its rather long taxi times...Schiphol is pretty big. But how big? And what does ‘big’ mean? You can read all about the extent of Schiphol here.
City-sized dimensions
Looking at the numbers, Schiphol covers an area of 27,870,000 m2. That’s the same as 27.87 square kilometres or 2,787 hectares. Sounds huge! To put that into perspective: Schiphol is as big as 4,500 football pitches, or... nearly 14 times the size of Monaco! The Dutch cities of Delft and Leiden can be compared with the airport in terms of area. Something that cities don’t have though is around 30 kilometres of fencing surrounding the whole territory! It would take almost 5 hours to walk the entire perimeter.
Terminal area, from A to M
A significant portion of the terrain consists of taxiways, runways and grass. But the terminals and their seven piers (B - M) cover a considerable area too - 650,000 m2 in total. And when Pier A is finished, another 55,000 m2 (around 11 football pitches) will be added, with room to ‘park' eight extra aircraft. 5,000 square metres of this extra surface area will soon be covered with solar panels; the new pier is all about sustainability!
How long are the runways?
The runways aren’t insignificant either. The shortest is the Oostbaan at two kilometres-long. This runway is primarily used by small (private) planes and occasionally by medium-sized aircraft when there’s a strong southwesterly wind. The Polderbaan Runway, with a length of 3,800 metres and width of 60 metres, is the longest and widest runway.
Want to see how big it is in real life? We’ve mapped out a walk (or bike ride) for you to enjoy! Happy hiking 😊
Read the previous blogs
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Quickly going from Schiphol to Amsterdam by train
Published on:Travellers flying from Schiphol often take the chance to visit Amsterdam. Whether you got off the plane or the train, you can be in Amsterdam in 17 minutes.
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Superstition in the air
Published on:Throwing coins at the aircraft, always eating the same meal before a flight. Aviation is no stranger to superstitions.
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Flying eye-catchers attracting a lot of attention
Published on:We see a large number of aircraft at Schiphol, so we’re not that easily impressed. But sometimes special planes come along that do attract a lot of attention.
