[8] It is located 9 kilometres (5.6 mi; 4.9 nmi)[6] southwest of Amsterdam, in the municipality of Haarlemmermeer in the province of North Holland.

The airport also serves as an operating base for Corendon Dutch Airlines, easyJet, Transavia, TUI fly Netherlands, and Vueling.

[12] Schiphol's main competitors in terms of passenger traffic and cargo throughput are London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Madrid, Paris–Charles de Gaulle and Istanbul.

[12] The airport is built as one large terminal (a single-terminal concept), split into three departure halls, which connect again once airside.

[13] To combat complaints from the community in Schiphol, Amsterdam Airport is advocating the prohibition of private jets, with the aim of minimizing noise and environmental pollution.

[15] After the lake was dredged in the mid-1800s, a fortification named Fort Schiphol was built in the area which was part of the Stelling van Amsterdam defence works.

[16] Schiphol opened on 16 September 1916 as a military airbase, with a few barracks and a field serving as platform[clarification needed] and runways.

After that, it served only as an emergency landing field, until the Germans themselves destroyed the remnants of the airfield at the start of Operation Market Garden.

The expansion came at the cost of a small town called Rijk, which was demolished to make room for the growing airport.

[20] A sixth runway was completed at quite some distance west of the rest of airport in 2003 and was nicknamed the Polderbaan, with the connecting taxiway bridge crossing the A5 motorway.

A national outrage resulted in the resignation of Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner (CDA) and Mayor Hartog of Haarlemmermeer.

Spatial Planning Minister Sybilla Dekker (VVD) resigned as well because she bore responsibility for safety failings cited in the report.

It experienced extraordinarily long delays and a large number of cancelled flights, which led to a recession of air traffic and subsequently to a shortage of security staff and a walkout of baggage handlers.

The airport adopted a distinctive design, with the second jetway extending over the aircraft wing hanging from a steel cantilever structure.

Emirates was the first airline to fly the A380 to Schiphol in August 2012, deploying the aircraft on its double daily Dubai–Amsterdam service.

[29] China Southern Airlines also used the A380 on its Beijing–Amsterdam route before removing the type from service at the end of 2022,[citation needed] leaving Emirates as the sole A380 operator at Schiphol Airport as of 2023.

Schiphol has large shopping areas, primarily on the ground floor, as a source of revenue and as an additional attraction for passengers.

[citation needed] The 1st floor[h] hosts the luggage check-in lines, many of them automated, as well as various duty-free refund booths.

[31] A new general aviation terminal was opened in 2011 on the east side of the airport, operated as the KLM Jet Center.

In the summer of 2010, Schiphol Airport Library opened alongside the museum, providing passengers access to a collection of 1,200 books (translated into 29 languages) by Dutch authors on subjects relating to the country's history and culture.

The 89.9 m2 (968 sq ft) library offers e-books and music by Dutch artists and composers that can be downloaded free of charge to a laptop or mobile device.

[35] For aviation enthusiasts, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol has a large rooftop viewing area, called the Panoramaterras.

[36] Besides the Panoramaterras, Schiphol has other spotting sites, especially along the newest Polderbaan runway and at the McDonald's restaurant at the north side of the airport.

[42] To handle future growth in passengers, Schiphol will further expand by building a fourth terminal hall with facilities for both departures and arrivals.

[45] The airport has expanded the number of uniform platforms, and places to stow airplanes, in recent years in two phases.

[56] The Schiphol air traffic control tower, with a height of 101 m (331 ft), was the tallest in the world when constructed in 1991.

[307] The TransPort Building on the Schiphol Airport property houses the head offices of Martinair and transavia.

"[330] The Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), the national Dutch train operator, has a major passenger railway station directly underneath the passenger terminal complex that offers transportation 24 hours a day into the four major cities Amsterdam, Utrecht, The Hague and Rotterdam.

Schiphol is also a stop for the Eurostar international high-speed train (formerly known as Thalys), connecting the airport directly to Antwerp, Brussels and Paris Gare du Nord, as well as to Bourg St Maurice (winter) and Marseille (summer).

[332] The Taiwanese EVA Air provides private bus services from Schiphol to Belgium for its Belgium-based customers.