[MarcusGB]

Congratulations to The Dutch on the 100 year history of Schiphol Airport!
Very interesting to see the clips, photos, and written history on display around the airport currently.

With the Municipality of Amsterdam owning 20%, The Dutch Ministry of finance roughly 70%, its a good Income for the City and Government.
KLM are in their 97th year also, the World’s longest running Airline. They have a great 97th year KLM Dutch House, which i was very fortunate to be offered at the end of my flight to Singapore a few days ago! Its a grand “Hotel New York”.

http://news.klm.com/klms-97th-delftware-miniature-is-hotel-new-york

In March 2016, the Schiphol group authorized the construction of a new terminal at the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, set to be ready by 2023, and with a capacity of 14 million passengers a year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schiphol_Group

Seems that capacity will easily overtake LHR in a few years, plenty of space, 6 runways, and excellent transport links to The Hague, and Amsterdam (@ 5 Euros / 15 minutes!)
Thanks to The Dutch!

[Edski777]

From what I get a lot of the revenue is directly invested in the airport and its infrastructure. It sure works.
I will be flying out of AMS on KL to CPH again tomorrow and looking forward to it.
Taking the train from Amsterdam Central Station to the airport and indeed very cheap, but reliable, fast and high quality. Absolutely no need to travel 1st class here.

Currently they are expanding the check-in and departure zone for an interim period to cope with the growth. I believe the solution they are building right now is for 2 million passengers a year and serves until the 2023 plans are coming online.

I posted some statistics earlier on a different thread this week about traffic at the main European hubs in October 2016. Apparently the trend has been like this for quite some time now.
My question remains: what will be the answer of other hubs and major users?

Top 4 European airports in October
1. London Heathrow: 6,50 million (-1,2 percent)
2. Schiphol: 5,79 million (+8,7 percent)
3. Parijs CDG: 5,75 million (-1,2 percent)
4. Frankfurt: 5,70 million (-0,3 percent)

[openfly]

Schiphol….THE CLOCK……has anybody seen the most original clock…anywhere??!!
It’s above the new area between D and E gates, near Starbucks on the way to the BA lounge. An enormous clock face with a guy inside who paints every minute and hour….bucket and paint brush in hand…he wipes off the minutes as they progress, and paints the next one. Who had such an original thought? Stand there and watch a guy paint your life away….brilliant.

[MartynSinclair]

I have to say that despite the extensive renovations at Schiphol it remains one of my most disliked airports and it shouldn’t be….

**The walks are amongst the longest in airport design..

**Q’s for European passports can be horrendous, with no auto gates (arrival), which for a newly renovated airport is very strange

**No enforcement of separate EU passport lines, which I thought was EU policy (yes we are still part of the EU).

Bearing in mind the investment, I would have thought the airport would have been more user friendly…

**I am still confused how to get the BA lounge

[Edski777]

Openfly,

Here is a link to the creator. His name is Maarten Baas and he is the ambassador for the Dutch Design Week 2016. His work can be found in several museums such as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Schiphol clock

Have fun! The airport is filled with little gems like this. I wish Schiphol would list them on a website.

[MarcusGB]

Hi Martyn.

I find some strange points you make re Schiphol.
With the moving travelators, generally its 10 minutes anywhere on each side of the A-C Schengen Zone, for long haul EF, non schengen flights and US (some), D, which is at the centre of the airport.
You can enter at Terminal 1, 2, 3 for your respective Airline if you are starting in AMS, and fast track above the KLM Sky Priority desks, where you go upstairs scan you boarding pass, taking 1 minute.
I witnessed the disciplined and well run Military police working with the Immigration Officers, monitoring, staffing changes when busy, and clear lanes for EU, including the gates. these are in every terminal. Strict but professional, no attitudes like the UK, and they apply the Immigration rules very well. I witnessed duplicate checks, magnifiers being used on passports as the non EU queue was checked. They run one of the best Immigration services apart from in Singapore, KUL,Sydney, I have seen.
Security with 20 lanes in place full,body scanners if you are connecting, average time for me 3 minutes, and 6 EU auto immigration gates, and manual Officer lead desks next to them. This is one of 4 exit immigration points.
The Dutch Army often choose an early morning flights and check you as you exit the plane after the bridge!

LHR has the most delayed and awkward of transfers, with buses and lucky if you can get through in an hour, and also very lucky if you luggage follows you.

At Singapore Changai the other day, it took me 20 minutes to get to my gate in T3, with a ride on a “skytrain” the terminal was so long, waits and 17 minutes walk if you choose.

Not sure where the BA “Room” is, hardly a lounge and dated as it was, but it appears to have moved,where it was, would be 30 seconds from Immigration on the First floor, after check in underneath for KLM in T2, Security and Immigration all in the one hall.

It remains voted Best in Europe, and is geared to overtake LHR, with the most forward thinking and planning made 15 years ahead!
CDG needs at time 1.5 hrs to walk, bus, train shuttle link and change to other flights going through the same!

Schiphol is very simple, and most superb in the whole of Europe, and i look forwards to going through there.

[openfly]

@EDSKI 777

Thanks for the info. I will look into his work…so original.
But, sadly, I wonder how many passengers ever notice such an original, fascinating work of art.
Quite brilliant. And well done which ever SPL manager commissioned the work!

[MartynSinclair]

Hi Marcus – I have used AMS several times in the past few months. I tend to arrive at Schiphol via train.

Arriving from London (BA), the immigration hall used, generally, only has max 2 officers on duty processing a queue of passengers. The are 2 signs, one for EU and one for all other passports. Its hit and miss who is in each line. I do not understand why there are no e gates in such a modern airport.

A couple of Sundays ago there were no trains due to track maintenance. There were no signs and directions to the bus at the far end of the terminal, were non existent. The platforms all remained open…

I usually arrive at the airport via train (that part of the journey is both excellent and cheap) & still find it confusing how to get the right terminal, but am now familiar with the fast track entry. However, I never seem to arrive anywhere near the lounge. Again the signage is poor as the displays only show the lounge numbers, not which airline.

Departure hall e gates (to leave) are sill having teething problems and I have never seen all of them working (I may have just been unlucky)

The walk from the BA lounge to the further point in the terminal is longer than 10 minutes and I am fast walker.

The airport is another example of a brand new and wonderful shopping centre, but the parts of it I use, do not make it very pleasant.. – sorry Marcus…

The positives:

*all staff including the security team are extremely pleasant and should be used to train T5 staff..
*easy, fast and economical to get to from both Amsterdam and Rotterdam via train
*good connections
*great ex-Europe fares (BA) and connecting flights

[canucklad]

Nice topic Marcus
Many happy memories of Schiphol, particularly the old colourful clicker departure board..
And no need to wait for a push back tug, because of the piers.
And as a wee boy from Vancouver seeing all those exotic aircraft (Caravelles-Tridents-Russian) all from far flung parts of the globe.
Most memorable was probably Air Anglia’s F27’s. as I begged my parents to get seats under the wing. The novelty of seeing the wheels hit the ground was a big thing to a kid who loved flying.

Also remember as we waited to board our CP Air stretch 8 back to YVR, there was great deal of excitement at the opposite gate. The World Cup finalists where arriving back from Buenos Aires , and sadly as a hockey fanatic I didn’t fully appreciate the moment as the modern day Dutch masters strolled past.

[MarcusGB]

Hi again Martyn.
Well, you observe what you do, and i do the same, so i accept what you observe.

For me being a Platinum Skyteam member, i use KLM, there are perhaps some differences, but we would still both depart from D gates? these are Non-Shenghen, which include some Delta Airlines flights these days, and all the UK flights.
Like you, i make 4 returns a month with KLM ex UK, which can mean 8 in/out ‘s of the Airport,some going on to long haul, but i generally can stopover in Amsterdam one or two nights.

I have noticed the same as you, the Immigration Hall at the end of D, is barriered off, and you have to walk round towards long haul, and there have been less Immigration desks open than usual.I will ask them why or of this is temporary in about 10 days time as i go through. but it does cut off 1/4 of the exit for Immigration, though last week, i was through there in about 5 mins, the EU desks. I notice that 3 officers are by two desks, one Senior, and a greater inspection of the passports is being made (they have magnifying, eye shaped glass and looking at every 4-5 passports going through!). I feel there is a bit of a clamp down, on wanting incoming passengers passports to be manually properly screened at the moment, so no gates being used.
Departing to Singapore two days later, gates were screened off also Fast track for D+ gates as you mention. They bare on a higher vigilance alert at the moment with Xmas coming up.
However, the military Police, and Immigrations officers (Mixed staff, black Uniforms for MP), are always very direct, polite, professional, and strict and thorough. This i respect and if we had such a UK service, i think much more would be picked up…and we have no exit passport control, which i find bizarre!
I actually waited longer arriving in Singapore, but i prefer a more Military style discipline with clear Authority, and a line of command, and not the LHR attitudes (i get same at T4).

I had an apartment in Amsterdam, there every week, and only once in those 3 years were trains diverted but still running to Schiphol. It is a brilliant service for about 5 Euros, less with a chipcard,8 trains an hour…compare that to £20 for the same length of trip to Paddington on the Heathrow express, or an hr into London on the tube, + if you live further out.

So where have they situated the BA Lounge now?
My Lounge 52 Crown Lounge is the KLM Intercontinental and non schenghen, so its a walk above F terminal, can take 10-15 mins to end of D. I tend to walk terminal ground level and use the travelators and many shops, also T3 which is superb for a low cost use! You can also stay on the 1st level after immigration and walk quicker past incoming body scanner security, and the First Aid / Medical centre.But its beautifully finished now, relaxed, spacious in height, art, glass views out to the airport, clean and well maintained. I really enjoy it, but delays happen, it is part of travel, unpredictable, but i factor the time in for them, so never bothered.
It is LHR where people are so rude, staff ignorant and clearly not interested in whatever job they do, from Immigration, cleaners, baggage handling gate agents boarding.

Schiphol may have some light delays but it remains for me the best Airport in Europe, and a Temple for travel.
Amazing to have a 100 year old large major Airport, how lucky KLM are, and a great income for The Dutch State and cities. Better than in a Private sector run form.

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