This is how many flight kilometers the Dutch make per year

In a year, the Dutch fly about as many kilometers as they drive by car. In 2024, this would amount to a total of about 100 billion kilometers by air. That is 2.5 million times around the world.

This was calculated by the Knowledge Institute for Mobility Policy (KiM). 4,000 people completed a questionnaire for the study.

"People in a favourable financial situation in particular make a lot of air miles", concludes KiM - not entirely surprisingly - based on its own research into flying behaviour. Airline tickets are expensive after all . This concerns both private and business trips by plane.

Half of all the kilometers flown were covered by 9 percent of the population. A large part of the adult population (50 percent) does not even fly a single kilometer.

The average flight distance of people from the highest household income group (more than 165,000 euros per year) is between 14,000 and 16,000 km per year. For people from households below the modal income (around 58,000 per year) this is on average less than 4000 km per year. The age group 50-60 years covers the greatest distance per year of all age groups, followed by young people (25-29 years)

Most flights are made by Dutch people from their own country, with Schiphol as the most important airport. About 13 percent chose to depart from an airport in Belgium or Germany in 2024. That percentage was about the same as previous measurements, in 2013 and 2016. "Residents of the border regions in particular choose an airport across the border. The most important reasons for doing so are proximity and price." Choosing a different airport is a frequently heard tip when finding cheaper airline tickets .

Holidays are the main reason for flying. Holidaymakers in particular are less attached to their flight destination than business travellers. “Some of them could just as well have travelled to another destination.”

A small minority of 6 percent chose a form of CO2 compensation for their last flight, for example by making a small extra payment for forest projects. Trees absorb CO2, although in recent years various studies have been conducted in which the conclusion was that such projects do not yield enough to fully compensate for the emissions of aircraft.

Most respondents assume that they will continue to fly in the future. “People with a strong climate awareness fly less far, compensate more often and are more likely to intend to fly less,” the researchers add.

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