Flights to Schiphol

Airfare is the biggest line in most travel budgets, so every euro you save on the flight is a euro for an extra day trip or one more night. The trouble with most cheap-flight advice is that it's either so general you already know it or doesn't apply to where you're going. These tips are about getting to Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) specifically, and what's changed about flying there.

What to know about Schiphol first

Schiphol is KLM's home base and one of Europe's biggest hubs, which works in your favor: lots of airlines, lots of nonstop routes, and plenty of competition from North America. But it's also a capped airport. The Dutch government has held Schiphol to about 478,000 flights a year, and it has stuck to that number even after the Council of State annulled its original decision in March 2026. Slots are scarce, so don't expect the kind of low-cost boom you see at some other European airports.

Taxes are also part of the price. The Netherlands charges an air passenger tax of €30.25 per departing passenger in 2026, which is built into the fare on any flight out of a Dutch airport. Transfer passengers are exempt. Your fare into Amsterdam isn't affected, but your flight home is.

Timing matters most

The single biggest factor in what you pay is when you fly. Some of that is planning, and some is what you're willing to put up with to save money.

• Go in the shoulder or off-season. The cheapest flights into Schiphol are in winter, when the weather is gray and cold but hardly a trip-killer in a city built around museums and cafes. Spring and fall are the best value overall. April is the driest month, and September is often still warm. Our Amsterdam weather page has the month-by-month numbers. Avoid late July and August, when fares from North America and around Europe are at their peak.
• Watch out for event dates. King's Day (27 April), Pride in late July and early August, and the Amsterdam Dance Event in October all push up both airfare and hotel prices. Check our holidays and events calendar before you lock in dates.
• Be flexible. This is the oldest advice in the book because it works. Search a range of dates rather than fixed ones, and compare flying in and out on weekdays with weekend travel. Mid-week departures are often cheaper on international routes, but check rather than assume.
• Accept a connection. Nonstop flights cost more. If you're flying from a smaller city, connecting through a hub on the way to Amsterdam can save real money, as long as the layover isn't brutal.
• Set fare alerts early. Start tracking your route months ahead so you know what a normal price looks like. Then you'll recognize a real sale when one shows up, instead of panic-buying or waiting too long.

Budget airlines into Amsterdam

If you're already in Europe, or you're flying into another European hub first, low-cost carriers can be the cheapest way to reach Schiphol. The earlier version of this page pointed you to Air Berlin, bmibaby and Flybe. All three are gone: bmibaby stopped flying in 2012, Air Berlin in 2017, and Flybe in 2020, with a relaunched Flybe also collapsing in 2023.

The low-cost airlines you'll find at Schiphol now include:

• Transavia, the Air France-KLM group's low-cost airline, based at Schiphol, with a big network of sun and city routes around Europe and North Africa.
• easyJet, with frequent flights to UK cities including London, Manchester, Bristol and Edinburgh, plus Milan and other European destinations.
• Vueling, mostly to Spain: Barcelona, Málaga, Alicante, Valencia and Palma.

Budget fares come with trade-offs. Bag fees add up, some routes run only a few times a week, and a cheap onward flight doesn't protect you if your first flight is late. Our guides to budget airlines that fly to Amsterdam and how to fly budget airlines to Amsterdam go into more detail.

Consider other airports

Schiphol is the easiest way into Amsterdam, but it isn't the only one. Flights into Rotterdam The Hague, Eindhoven, Brussels or Düsseldorf are sometimes much cheaper, and all of them connect to Amsterdam by train or bus. Brussels is an especially good option, since high-speed Eurostar trains run from Brussels to Amsterdam. See our guide to alternate airports for Amsterdam, and to getting between Amsterdam and Brussels.

You can also fly into a big hub like London, Paris or Frankfurt and continue by train or on a short cheap flight. Remember that you'll need to leave time between separately booked flights, and that the airline won't wait for you if the first one runs late.

Think beyond a simple round trip

If Amsterdam is one stop on a longer trip, pricing it as a string of one-ways is often the most expensive way to do it. An open-jaw ticket, flying into Amsterdam and home from another city, saves you backtracking. For bigger trips, a multi-stop or round-the-world ticket bundles everything into one booking, so a missed connection is the airline's problem rather than yours.

That's what BootsnAll's sister company AirTreks has done since 1987. A couple of its sample routes that include Amsterdam:

Iceland is a useful trick on transatlantic trips too. Our post on Icelandair to Amsterdam with a stopover explains how that works, and indie trips that include Amsterdam has more ideas.

Once you land

Schiphol has its own train station right under the arrivals hall, and trains to Amsterdam Centraal take about 15 to 20 minutes. You can tap in and out with a contactless bank card instead of buying a ticket. Our guide to getting from the airport to Centraal Station covers every option, and if you only have a few hours between flights, read our Amsterdam layover guide. Arriving late or leaving early? See hotels near Schiphol.

photos, top to bottom, by Tom Raftery, Mijndert Stuij, mindspillage, antwerpenR