Numbers of employees working outside of office hours

At Schiphol, 14,154 employees work as crew (of whom 10,824 are cabin crew and 3,330 flight crew). In addition to having to work outside of office hours, this group typically also has to cope with the physiological effects of time and climate differences. A total of 42,165 employees at Schiphol (46,677 employees extrapolated for all Dutch airports of interest) are required to work flexible hours and (partly) outside of office hours.

A total of 13,584 employees (24.3% of the total aviation-related working population at the airport) work within office hours at Schiphol. They usually occupy administrative/support posts (financial, administrative and development).

 At the airport, a total of 28,011 people (also) work outside of office hours. Typically, they come from a broad spectrum of operational professions, some of which are specifically aviation-related, such as:

• Airside operators (managers
• Aircraft service providers (shunters, tanker drivers, water lorry drivers)
• Baggage and cargo handlers (loaders and unloaders, drivers)
• Desk personnel
• Caterers
• Drivers
• Customs officers
• Hospitality workers
• Landside operators (services agents, ticket agents, gate agents)
• Logistical support staff (trolley shunters, ticket readers)
• Airport security guards and airport fire service
• Air traffic controllers
• Border police officers
• Support service providers
• Planners
• Cleaners
• Retail shop assistants
• Aircraft technicians

Many ground staff are covered by a collective agreement allowing them to request an exemption from evening and night shifts from the age of 55 onwards. With (almost all) staff in many departments being 55 or over because of the recruitment and hiring freeze, such requests cannot always be accommodated in the current climate. In the long term, this undermines the sustainable employability of such staff. As the working population at the airport ages, it is young employees, whose intake is dwindling, that will increasingly be asked to work evening and night shifts. This will also put jobs in other segments of the aviation industry at risk, as will the catalytic impact of aviation on jobs in the Netherlands.