Over 3.7 million passengers flew from Schiphol Airport this summer

Over 3.7 million passengers flew from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam between 7 July and 3 September, the airport reported on Friday. With an average of 1,339 aircraft movements per day and a total of 79,000 flights, the airport experienced a summer season that nearly returned to its previous activity level.

The airport reported that London, Barcelona, and Istanbul emerged as the top destinations for city trips this summer, with Spain, Great Britain, and Greece being the most favored countries for holiday-goers.

Meanwhile, the average wait time at security control was reduced to three minutes. “This is partly because travellers had prepared themselves well but also because 1050 new colleagues started working in security,” the airport stated, noting that this exceeded their initial target of 850 hires.

A significant number of travelers made use of the option to book a time slot for the security check. Passengers at Schiphol are now able to reserve a time slot where they can decide when they want to pass through security checkpoints.

Schiphol announced the new service a few weeks ahead of the April-May holidays. It was during this period last year that the consequences of staff shortages in airport security and baggage handling first became apparent. Travellers often had to queue for hours last year, resulting in many missing flights.

Due to the success of this service over the summer, Schiphol announced that it will examine whether the possibility to reserve time slots can be extended to check-in and passport control.

Despite a generally smooth summer holiday season, Schiphol acknowledged that there have been instances of long queues at passport control and delays in baggage handling. "This remains a focus area that Schiphol continues to work on," the airport stated.