In 2007, Schiphol handled 47,793,602 passengers, ranking fifth in Europe behind London, Paris, Frankfurt and Madrid. There are 188 loading slots in the whole airport. About 68% of the passenger flights were to Europe, almost 21% of its passengers travelled on intercontinental flights and 11% to Asia; cargo was mainly headed to Asia (44%) and North America (20%) In the same year, Schiphol handled 1,566,828 tons of cargo, ranked third in Europe behind Paris and Frankfurt. In 2005 direct flights were operated to more than 260 destinations in 91 countries. The airport currently is one out of six airports in the world to have a rating of four stars in to Skytrax's grading system. Schiphol has five main runways, plus one used mainly by general aviation aircraft. The latest of these, the Polderbaan (nicknamed the "fifth runway", although it is really the sixth if we include the small runway) was completed in 2003. Plans have already been made for a seventh runway.
The airport has been built as one large terminal, which is split into three large departure halls, which converge again once airside. The most recent of these was completed in 1994, and expanded in 2007 with a new part, named Terminal 4, although this part can not be recognised as a separate building. Plans for further terminal expansion exist: most notably, there are plans to construct a separate new terminal between the Zwanenburgbaan and Polderbaan runways. This would end the one-terminal concept. However, these long-existing plans have not materialised yet.
Because of intense traffic and high landing fees, some low cost carriers decided to move their flights to smaller airports, such as Rotterdam and Eindhoven. However, especially with the low-cost H-pier becoming operational, many low cost carriers (like easyJet, SkyEurope, and bmibaby) continue to operate from Schiphol. Schiphol is the home base of KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines), Arkefly, Martinair and Transavia.com, and a hub for Northwest Airlines in cooperation with KLM.
The Schiphol Air traffic control tower, with a height of 101 m, was the tallest in the world when constructed in 1991. Schiphol is geographiclly the world's lowest major commercial airport. The entire airport is below sea level; the lowest point which sits at eleven feet below sea level (4.5 meters below Normaal Amsterdams Peil) and the runways are around 3m below Normaal Amsterdams Peil.[7][8]
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