Inside Europe’s Busiest Air Traffic Control - Amsterdam

Amsterdam is Europe’s busiest airport, in terms of movements and top 3 in terms of passenger numbers. In 2018, it handled over 70 million passengers, with over 500,000 movements. I visited the Air Traffic Control Tower and Radar Centre in Amsterdam, to find out how the air traffic is managed in one of the busiest European Airports. The ATC tower controller explains all the working positions, runway configurations and movements inside the ATC tower at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. I was given a behind the scene tour and enjoyed some awesome plane spotting views up in the 101m tower. Then, I visited the LVNL Radar Centre. A controller explains how the radar controls work. In fact, once the plane leaves the gate it will remain in contact with the tower and many different area controls until it lands and arrives at the gate. The visit gave me a great insight as to how Air Traffic Control works in today’s crowded skies. To find out more about ATC in The Netherlands, visit