Schiphol opens extra departures hall as KLM warns of overcrowding

Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport opened a new temporary departures hall on Monday to alleviate crowding in the busy summer season, according to the Parool.

This came hard on the heels of yet another warning from KLM, the airport’s largest user, about pressure on the airport’s facilities. KLM said at the weekend Schiphol was permitting more flights than it could handle in the summer season which would result in long queues at departure desks, baggage handling and passport control.

Last year, the airport had projected passenger numbers within Europe would increase by 6%, but the total was 17% higher than in 2015.

The new €14.5m, 4,400 m2 temporary departures hall is designed to handle only passengers travelling on flights within the so-called Schengen area where passports are not required.  The 1A hall will be used primarily by KLM, Cityhopper, Lufthansa, Austrian and LOT.

The hall has 22 check-in desks, 12 check-in computers and six lanes for security checks and will handle about two million passenggers. In 2016, Schiphol handled 10 million Schengen passengers.