Amsterdam Schiphol airport trials Disneyland-inspired time slots to reduce queuing times

The airport has introduced theme park-esque time slots for security

Amsterdam Schiphol is trialling security time slots (AFP)

Amsterdam Schiphol has been inspired by Disneyland’s time slot system to reduce wait times for security at the popular Dutch airport.

The busy airport, which sees more than 63 million passengers pass through every year, is introducing a time-allocated security lane to help cut queues down in peak periods.

The system is currently being trialled, and is only open to passengers travelling within the Schengen area.

Participating passengers in the pilot scheme will skip the queues at no extra cost; if successful, the system is likely to be used on a wider scale across the airport in future.

Manager of security policy Daan van Vroonhoven told the Sun: "For each 15 minutes, 30 passengers can get through the checkpoint.

"At Disneyland, it is very normal, for years already, to reserve a time slot for a ride or exhibition."

Amsterdam has been attracting increasing numbers of tourists over recent years, and this is one of many ways in which the capital of the Netherlands is attempting to cope with the influx of visitors. However, the tourism team is getting creative, rather than prohibitive.

“We’re an open, tolerant city,” tourism chief Geerte Udo told Condé Nast Traveler. “How can you ever imagine us saying ‘You’re not welcome here!’?”

Udo and the i amsterdam team, which oversees the city’s tourism, have spent the last two years trying to subtly move tourists away from the most popular attractions, such as the Red Light District and Museum Quarter. They used the data stored on the chip inside Amsterdam’s City Card, which gives access to various attractions and free public transport, to analyse tourist behaviour and devise ways of changing it to ease congestion.

“We can see exactly how these people behave,” said Udo. “Everybody comes to the city and goes to the Van Gogh Museum in the morning, and [takes] a canal boat in the afternoon.”

The team then attempted to switch up this pattern, for example by suggesting people take a boat ride in the morning to avoid the crowds when they bought their City Card. Another scheme involved displaying a live feed showing the queue at the most popular places, such as the Van Gogh Museum, to encourage visitors to plan their trip for later in the day or plump for another destination altogether.

Other strategies have included rebranding places to entice tourists to venture further afield. Zandvoort, 18 miles from the city centre, has been renamed Amsterdam Beach to signal that it can be easily reached – and public transport to more far-flung destinations like this is also now included as part of the City Card offering.