Skipping through profitable Schiphol

Another quick roadshow in Europe. This time I really pushed it, doing five cities in three days: Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Stockholm, The Hague and Paris. Last week it was really cold in these places with Frankfurt recording minus 15 but it warmed up in time and everything progressed without a hitch. To get to The Hague you pass through Schiphol, Amsterdam's airport. This is a busy place with nearly 50 million passengers pouring through per annum. For some strange reason, KLM, the national airline, doesn't seem to get very good slot positions at the airport so on internal European flights you always have to walk for yonks before you get clear. The airport is very profitable, booking a net of Euro 194m  last year, up about 15% on 2010. The Dutch government has continued to hang tough with the Germans on Greece and for the umpteenth time there was another cliffhanger through the week as the Eurozone north piled the pressure on Greece to pass swingeing austerity measures to comply with the terms of the second Euro 130bn bail-out - that is not small change! Labour costs in Greece and other peripherals are coming down sharply now which will render them more competitive but they face very tough times before they can reap any benefits. The QSL is from Radio Bloemendaal, the Dutch religious broadcaster, heard on AM from Kent in 2002.