Schiphol prepares for busiest day of the year

Schiphol Airport expects that today will be its busiest day of the year. An estimated 222,261 passengers will travel through the airport today - a record number, a spokesperson said to ANP.

Some 108,880 of the travelers are departing from the airport. The rest are arriving, according to NOS. Most of the crowd will be made up from people returning from their holidays.

Travelers are advised to make sure they arrive on time for their flights. Due to extra security on the roads to Schiphol, those traveling by car should take extra travel time of about 30 minutes into account.

The airport is taking measures to try and channel the crowds as best as possible. Extra staff members were called in to work today and travelers are asked to follow the instructions properly, especially when going through customs where long lines are unavoidable. "Take your things out of your bag before you get to customs and put them in a container, for example", a spokesperson for the airport said to NOS.

The rest of the weekend is also expected to be busy. From Friday to Sunday a total of 644,754 are expected to arrive, depart or switch flights at the airport.

On Thursday the court in Haarlem banned strikes by KLM ground crew until September 4th. According to the court, holiday crowds and the terrorist threats behind the extra security measures at the airport are an "explosive situation" that makes striking irresponsible. Public safety outweighs the right to strike, the court ruled.