Schiphol
 

An acquaintance reports he and his wife standing outside for two hours in a security clearance queue yesterday, with no indication as to which line they should join.
What is going on there?
https://www.euronews.com/travel/amp/...for-travellers

It's been like that for a while and other airports around Europe. UK press ignore that as no polital gain.

AMS handling staff informally advise Schiphol will see 2 hour long queues for security all summer. Along with ARN, it's one to avoid flying out of for the next month or two. If you transfer between flights... then make sure you are flying in from a Schengen airport and don't have to reclear security

You don’t have to re-clear security when arriving at AMS from many non-Schengen countries including the UK, Ireland or US. Basically if they trust the airport security of the origin country, no re-screening is required. There is a passport check for transfers to Schengen countries but that’s the same as what would be required for entering the Netherlands.

Non EU passport control inbound can be a nightmare too. Took nearly an hour to get through it on arrival last week. Strangely no one in the queue (a couple of U.K. flights had arrived at the same time) was admitting to having voted for it. The automatic gates for EU passport holders only next to us had no queue, which didn’t improve my mood!

Solutions are on the way (perhaps)...

https://nltimes.nl/2022/05/26/klm-st...mpaign=website

Actually
 

You can use the electronic gates in AMS with U.K., US, Japanese and a few other passports.

The queue’s still massive though.

So when were we invited to vote on the question: "Do you want to join a queue or not?".

Let's try to keep the debate above the level of infantile.

Fun fact. Only 24ish% of people voted for the thing in 2016. Since then a number have ‘moved on’ and there’s been five years of births. So if the flight was truly representative it would actually have been a struggle to find anyone because the overwhelming bulk of you didn’t.

Same thing that’s going on in lots of airports with management dropped the ball.

Firstly, Covid-19 resulted in lots of layoffs, with no plan to quickly rehire or reactivate staff. This has been discussed before.

Secondly, despite the sunny outlook depicted by some, Covid-19 is still here. Most folk who got vaccinated in Europe are now six months out from their last vaccination, and it can still get you bad. Frontline staff in airports, surrounded by jet setting travellers from all over the world, are getting sick and are off for up to a week at a time, exacerbating the problem.

Went through passport control on arrival at AMS on Tuesday in 10 mins or so. Bags appeared as we walked through.

However, departed AMS 3 weeks previously and the queue for security was endless at Terminal 1. Top tip: go to anther terminal. We went to T2 and through in 10 to 15 mins. Came out in the same building, but just along a bit.

Me

News reports on the web that Schiphol wants airlines to cut 30% of flights over the summer
Yes, surprised me too

Flights or pax? Bring back KLM A310s !

Can slots at AMS be traded for money, similiar to what happens at LHR ?

Posted this on another forum about my experience on Monday 20th.

I flew into AMS yesterday from LCY, chaos still reigns at Schipol. Security guys hold you back from entering passport control ( I was waiting 30+ minutes),, once through the queue it then takes ages to move to the desk,I then can proceed to the baggage hall to wait for bags - and wait, and wait, my flight vanished off the screen after 90 minutes, still no bags. The handling agents desk is unmanned so I am unable to ask anyone about what is happening, I then find after another 90 minutes has passed I learn that another agents desk is manned in a different baggage hall, the staff there were indifferent to say the least, but when you see the amount of 'unclaimed' bags scattered around the two baggage halls & stacked up in arrivals walkways I can perhaps understand why. Checking my PIR on the BA website I noticed that the agent hasn't even entered the bag tag ( I tried 'edit' & it won't accept the number)

Needless to say my luggage (which I saw come out of the hold (I was sat above it) has not yet reached my hotel & even though I was told it would follow me home (if found) I have severe reservations about that..

I never though I'd say this but I've been put off travelling by air by this shambles.

Schiphol airport will be able to offer no more than 440,000 take off and landing slots per year from November 2023, infrastructure minister Mark Harbers confirmed on Friday. The figure represents a 12% cut in the current total, which the airport is currently close to breaching, and would see traffic back at 2014 levels.

https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2022/0...ise-pollution/

Don't suppose anyone knows who handles check-in and baggage for Arkia in AMS?

https://www.schiphol.nl/en/airline/arkia/