What’s the best thing to do during Dutch summer? Fleeing the country to a warmer and sunnier place! There’s just one hurdle to jump, and that’s the chaos at Schiphol Airport.
According to Schiphol, the airport expects to be busier this summer than in recent years. During the holiday period, which lasts until 1 September, the airport expects a total of 12.3 million travellers.
The result? Longer waiting times.
Waiting at check-in, security, and passport control
On average, more than 69,000 people are expected to depart from Schiphol daily, which is over 1,000 more than last year. On peak days, up to 81,500 departing travellers are expected.
If you’re one of them, you should expect longer waiting times at check-in, security check and passport control.
Just landed at @Schiphol and it’s pandemonium. I find the “non-Eu” queue at pretty much every European airport is overwhelmed. I don’t understand why everyone hasn’t moved to automatic gates yet. It’s the one redeeming quality of Heathrow that anyone with a machine-readable… pic.twitter.com/6Vji7l2QUQ— Robby Yung ⦿⦿⦿ (@viewfromhk) June 21, 2024
That being said, a Schiphol spokesperson tells NU.nl that Schiphol believes it can manage the summer holidays.
As passengers, there are also some things we can do to ensure that our trip gets off to a smooth start.
How can I prepare?
Schiphol has various services in place to help passengers get the best possible experience.
For example, you can monitor the expected crowds at Schiphol on the day of your flight. This handy tool lets you enter your flight number and tells you how much time you’ll need at every step of the way.
Even better, Schiphol lets you book a free time slot for your security check, ensuring you will get your turn within five minutes of arrival at the security desk.
Besides that, Schiphol recommends checking into your flight at home and getting to the airport on time. For European flights, that is two hours in advance, and for intercontinental flights, three hours.
What are your best tips for a smooth Schiphol experience? Share them in the comments!
This is a very informative article. But I hope it also is being read by those in charge of schipol as we had a bad experience of waiting for our luggages to be loaded on the conveyor after 2 hours and simply because we rode a budget airline and those after our flight arrival got their ahead. Is it because the airport prioritizes flag carrier airline KLM . The airline staff said it was delayed due to less personnel on duty but it was not consistent to the priorities in releasing baggages according to flight arrivals. If so I agree that they add kore scanners similar to Singapore ( Changi) who do not depend on manpower .But they also employ senior citizens who become passenger service personnel