Schiphol is too large for the area it serves. A huge part of flight are two leg KLM flights (the national carrier, also heavily subsidized) with a cheap layover

Schiphol is too large for the area it serves. A huge part of flight are two leg KLM flights (the national carrier, also heavily subsidized) with a cheap layover in Schiphol. Make it less cheap, or even expensive, and international customers are switching to layovers elsewhere. There is no shortage of airports in the area after all. With that, Schiphol would quickly become a second rate airport. Which isn't a problem at all, the Netherlands are after all small and apart from the tiny clique that set this all up, actually don't need all those connections. Note that the airport is smack in the middle of the countries most heavily populated area, so its air and noise pollution bother many.