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

[aerodaan]

As a Dutch pilot flying in and out of Amsterdam on a regular basis, I really enjoyed watching this video tour around various radar control departments. Many familiar voices, but never have seen their faces. Very good work delivered by them; accurate, efficient and always very friendly.

[aberreg]

The radar controller's explainations were so clear and interesting! You can really tell she loves her job, and is a top expert at it 👍

[feversol]

I was a controller at a US enroute center that might be equivalent to what she calls area control in Europe. This woman gave an excellent explanation of how the system operates. Very clear and articulate. I used to enjoy giving tours to visitors and hope I was half as good at explaining the job as she is. Nicely done.

[nasserbahzad]

The Dutch have got to be some of the nicest people I have ever interacted with. I was transferring through Schiphol a few years back and as I was going through security at the gate, I asked the security officer if I had to take my shoes off. He just looked down at my shoes, looked up at me and said “Well that depends. What’s your shoe size?” with the biggest smile I have ever seen on any airport security officer in the world 😂😂 great attitude!

[grbu]

This is easily the best ATC video I've seen on YouTube.
You could clearly hear everyone.
You could read the monitors being shown.
Great questions were asked.
Great people being interviewed.
No unnecessary fluff.

[ClarkyAv]

Someone who answers a question with "affirm" is my kind of person!!

[dbeach]

By far the best view of ATC. Especially the wonderful woman in the radar center who explained things so clearly. Her enthusiasm for ATC, and encouraging people to come into the field was especially nice. The technology in Amsterdam, and the professionalism of the controllers is known worldwide.

[FlightATC]

LOL! When you are so obsessed with ATC, you start saying "Affirm" in normal conversations! 14:02

[myausstudy]

The radar control lady's enthusiasm and passion are raw and truly infectious. Thank God we have such committed and competent professionals keeping us safe in the sky. Thank you for this video Sam.

[vishushams]

The lady is wearing a HUGO and talks like a BOSS who knows and loves her job. Thank you guys for keeping those skies safe for us !! Great work Sam !!

[abhilashkk]

The way she explained is simply amazing. The coversation actually help us to visualize how each level of operations happening behind the scene. Love this video.

[RaterisimoCBA]

The woman interviewed gives that confidence and security feel that I would trust her my life and my kids any day If I actually had any. Marvelous !

[Denyo]

As a Dutch person who goes to Schiphol regularly, it's so cool to see what's going on behind the scenes. I see that tower so often from the outside, now after all these years I finally know how it looks like from the inside.

[saigampa]

Wonderful content Sam, these people are unnoticed legends behind the safe journeys of many passengers each day. Tough job but it's really great to see how passionate they are about what they doing.

[kaafibeyhani]

"This is where all the magic happens"
When Corona is over, i shall be continuing my training to be full ATC in Somalia.
Happy national job

[DudeBroBroDude]

Radar: KLM657HDG GF8H76G 88756984 LMGR 65
Woman: “As you can see this is a Dreamliner going to London”

[KEITHGEE]

Brilliant, Sam, really enjoyed this report. For we avgeeks, any ATC stuff is fascinating. Schipol enjoys a well deserved reputation of excellence. Great work, thanks.

[collinswekesa]

The lady in this video is such an asset and the highlight for me.. She is quite passionate and articulate about the operations at the airport and the tower! Kudos to her and the entire team!

[antonbrum]

This video was so amazing. So many people just board a commercial airliner with little knowledge of what it takes to go from A to B. Thanks Sam and all those great people involved.

[TH-iejr]

The women you interviewed at the end has actually inspired me to look into this a bit further. Hearing someone talk so confidently and passionately about this really made me feel inspired.