NETHERLANDS. Royal Schiphol Group is set to launch a key tender on 10 September for management of its advertising and media assets as it moves from an in-house-managed programme to a concession partnership.
The Moodie Davitt Report is working with the airport company to communicate the opportunity to the global airport advertising community.
The open tender, participation in which Schiphol Group welcomes experienced players in the airport advertising market from Europe and worldwide, spans three packages. Each contract will run until 31 December 2032 with two-year extension options.
One encompasses Amsterdam Airport Schiphol’s airside assets and the airport rail station. The second includes the regional airports of Rotterdam, Eindhoven and Lelystad.
The third covers the media assets on roadways connected to the airport space. The packages will be awarded individually while Schiphol Group said it was also possible for one company to capture all three.
The move to outsource the business comes against the backdrop of a major investment in Schiphol Group’s infrastructure under its ten-year Master Plan launched in late 2025, with around €10 billion committed over the next decade.
This should provide not only for the expected leap in passenger volumes from around 70 million a year to 90 million by 2050, but also to ensure further improvement in the quality of traveller experience while building the quality of the airport’s assets.
Having raised aviation charges two years ago, the group’s focus shifted to the vital non-aeronautical channel to support this co-funding of the future. Examples of the new approach in practice include the duty-free joint venture between Schiphol Group and Lagardere Travel Retail since May 2025, and a tender for the travel essentials business issued in March this year.
Attention now turns to maximising the potential of the media business, as Schiphol Group Head of Commercial Terminal Services Tim de Bie explained.
“We are among the last major European airports to outsource our media activities. Doing so can be seen in the same light as our other recent commercial partnership agreements and tenders.”
He said Schiphol is seeking a “professional, specialised partner whose expertise can help improve the quality of the assets we hold, and the quality of the advertising we host while improving the passenger experience.”
That partner can also chime in relevant ways with potential partners that has not been fully maximised to date.
De Bie said, “We have a wonderful sales team under our current model but we are not well enough aligned with how the majority of sales happen today.
“If you are a global company that wants to advertise across European airports, as a first step you call a media agency. If you want to do a Netherlands-wide campaign, you also call a media agency. It is difficult and labour-intensive for our team to sell on the back of the media agency deals that are concluded and to always be in the right place at the right time to tap into media investment.
“It is a matter of scale. You have thousands of potential partners looking to come to the airport but we have a team of 17 full-time employees which means it is basically not possible to cover all the opportunities.”
Schiphol Group is already invested in reducing what de Bie called the “clutter” of media assets around the airport, with fewer but more impactful digital screens to be used in future. The new partner should welcome this approach, added de Bie.
“We want a partner that has experience in a high-traffic environment with millions of visitors. We also want to offer them a high-quality asset base with high-quality advertisements that can delight the passenger and not detract from their ability to find their way to the airplane.
“Today we see too many small statements coming at the traveller from every angle and we want to reduce that, not only in media but in retail and services too. The environment can be confusing for some.
“We want our partner to actively work with us to develop a world-class media asset base into the future. Schiphol will still own the assets, but it helps if you have a specialised partner that can help you select the locations and the type of quality that features on the screens.”
With the new agreement, which will operate as a concession, head count at the existing media team will reduce in time, with remaining Schiphol team members continuing to manage the current assets and make decisions on how to place new assets.
On trends that are driving change in the market today, Schiphol Group Head of Media Barry Doodeman said: “We see a big uplift in digitisation and fewer static billboards so that is important. Programmatic is also key, and here we see demand increasingly centralised through the agencies.”
The use of almost exclusively digital assets and programmatic platforms makes switching assets in and out less expensive and more attractive to smaller companies, Schiphol Group added.
“We can also take better advantage of the available data in the airport by targeting certain groups from business travellers to leisure shoppers. With access to that, you can use aggregated and privacy-compliant data insights to improve targeting, relevance and measurement. We do this now but can really do it at scale with a new partner,” said Doodeman.
The three-way split of packages noted above makes sense, added de Bie, as each category caters to a different audience, from Amsterdam Schiphol to the regional airports to the roadways.
On the aspirations for the media business, de Bie said that improving income from advertising assets is a core element, with an aspiration to at least double revenues from this channel in the coming years.
Summing up the opportunity, he said: “We want to improve the quality across every aspect of our airport. This approach will improve the media capability a lot, and it will also hopefully improve our earning capacity from media. This in turn will fund future improvements at the airport, and improve the quality of the airport experience.”
The tender will be launched this week, with submissions due by November and selection of partners by year end or early 2027. The handover of media assets and the start of the new concessions are expected by Q2 2027. ✈
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