Last year, the Dutch flew 100 billion km, or 2.5 million times around the world. This was calculated by the Knowledge Institute for Mobility Policy (KiM). It’s as many kilometers as the Dutch drive by car annually, but with the difference that half of all the kilometers flown are traveled by 9% of the Dutch population.
According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), the registered population at the end of March 2025 was 18,066,249 inhabitants. “People in a favorable financial situation, especially, make many flight kilometers,” KiM says. This includes both private and business trips.
The Dutch make most of their flights from their own country, especially from Schiphol Airport, the largest Dutch airport and, with 66.8 million passengers last year, also one of the busiest European airports, after London Heathrow, Istanbul, and Paris Charles de Gaulle.
About 13% chose to depart from an airport in Belgium or Germany. These are primarily residents of a border region; their choice is determined by proximity and price. Plus, larger travel groups are likelier to depart from an airport in Belgium or Germany than smaller groups or individual travelers.
Strongly income-related
The main reason for flying remains vacation, although the study also proves again that flying is strongly income-related: the higher the income, the greater the flight distance.
The average flight distance of people from the highest household income group (over 165,000 euros per year) is between 14,000 and 16,000 km annually. For people from households below the modal income (about 58,000 euros per year), it is less than 4,000 km per year on average.
The migration background also plays a role: those with a migration background travel a longer flight distance on average than a Dutch person with Dutch origin. Furthermore, the 50-60 age group travels the most significant distance per year, followed by young people, or the 25-29 age group.
6.9% of total Dutch emissions
If you look at the CO2 emissions for all those flight kilometers of the Dutch in 2024, you arrive at 10 million tons of CO2. The Netherlands’ total CO2 emissions in 2024 were around 144.8 megatons. In other words, the 100 billion passenger kilometers per year causes about 6.9% of total Dutch emissions.
Still, in 2024, the total CO2 emissions from road traffic in the Netherlands were around 26.9 megatons, an increase of 2.7% compared to 2023. Passenger cars were responsible for about 57% of these emissions, representing about 15.3 megatons of CO2.
Few compensate
Only a small minority (6%) chose some form of CO2 compensation on their last flight by making a small extra payment for forest projects. The low percentage may also be because such compensation projects are increasingly seen as pure greenwashing.
Several recent studies have pointed out that such projects do not produce enough to compensate for aircraft emissions.
Compensation is chosen especially for air travel over shorter distances—up to 1,500 to 2,000 km one way. The cost of offsetting for those distances is relatively modest because the total CO2 emissions are strongly intertwined with the total travel distance.
Four thousand people participated in the KiM survey. Most assume that they will continue to fly in the future. “People with strong climate awareness fly less far, compensate more often, and more often intend to fly less,” the researchers conclude.
