Amsterdam Airport Schiphol opened in September 1916 as a military airfield on the drained bed of the former Haarlemmermeer lake, land reclaimed from water in the 1850s. Civil aviation began in 1920, when KLM, founded a year earlier, started flying to London, making Schiphol and KLM one of the oldest airline-airport partnerships in the world. The airport was almost completely destroyed in the Second World War but was rapidly rebuilt afterward.
In 1967 an entirely new terminal complex opened, built around a distinctive one-terminal concept in which all gates connect to a single building. Schiphol grew into one of Europe's great transfer hubs, adding piers, lounges, and in 1978 a railway station directly beneath the terminal.
The Polderbaan, a sixth runway located so far away that taxiing can take 15 to 20 minutes, opened in 2003 to reduce noise over surrounding towns. Schiphol has consistently ranked among Europe's three or four busiest airports, peaking above 71 million passengers in 2019. Government caps on annual flight movements, driven by noise and environmental concerns, have made its future growth one of the most hotly debated topics in European aviation.