- Over the past few months, a lot of effort has gone into recruiting new colleagues at Schiphol.
- The starting point is a good travel experience for our travellers and an acceptable workload for all employees.
- The results so far are positive. As of 26 March, the start of the new season, Schiphol will no longer put a limit on the total number of departing passengers. However, additional effort will be required from all parties concerned at several peak moments, especially in the morning, in order to prevent excessively long queues and delays in processing.
- More travel will be possible again in the May holidays. The decision on the final capacity for that period will be taken in consultation with partners at the airport.
The restriction on passenger numbers, as has been the case in recent months, is no longer necessary. However, there are times in the new season starting at the end of March when Schiphol and partners see that there are more travellers in the morning peak (06:00-11:00) than the system at Schiphol can handle. To resolve this issue in a timely and proactive manner, Schiphol is holding follow-up talks with airlines, the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee and handling companies (the so-called team Schiphol) in the coming weeks. The joint ambition is to organise those peak moments in such a way that travellers do not experience long queues even then.
I am pleased for our travellers, employees and airlines with the progress we have collectively made. Things are looking good heading towards the May holidays. From the start of the 2023 season at the end of March, we are going to scale up further in a responsible and phased manner, in the interest of those travellers, employees and airlines. We are not going to take any risks. We want to once again offer the quality and certainty that everyone can expect of Schiphol. That’s why we are working with our partners at the airport to tackle the remaining bottlenecks as we head towards the May holidays and beyond. We are doing this as team Schiphol, as we call it, because this is something we have to do together. We are well in time to organise everything properly. That will certainly be more generous than last year and just below the numbers seen in 2019, the year before Covid.
Explanation: Measures at Schiphol
In order to solve the problematic queues seen last year, Schiphol has taken several measures in the recent period. An extensive recruitment campaign was launched together with the security companies at Schiphol to recruit more security officers. The employment conditions for security officers, work schedules and rest areas have all been improved. All these measures are bearing fruit, but they are not yet complete.
So far, since the campaign was launched in November 2022, about half of the additional 850 security officers Schiphol needs have been recruited. Based on those results, Schiphol is optimistic that the remaining shortages will continue to be resolved in the coming weeks and months leading up to the summer holidays.
Measures related to productivity at security, where passengers and their hand baggage are checked, are also being worked on. Capacity gains can be made there through better work instructions and smarter organisation.