Schiphol airport - yesterday KLM *suspended* all inbound flights from elsewhere in Europe (!!)

Wow, it’s good that they want to ensure that as many stranded passengers can still depart from Amsterdam as possible, but what about those still stranded in Bergen, in your example? Or everywhere else? What a mess, is right! One-time situation, I wonder, or will this happen more and more?

Hint: It's only the first week of June. Most kids are still in school and their families have not yet started their summer travel. The busiest summer travel period has not yet begun. That begins later in June.

I don't think we've seen the worst of this yet. For those planning flights in peak summer (July and August), beware if you have anything even remotely like a tight connection (and not just in AMS, there are plenty of other airports that have melted down in recent weeks).

Maybe these will turn out to just be the "growing pains" as airports and all transportation systems are experiencing their first stress tests after the perceived/wished-for "end" of the pandemic (which isn't over), and maybe this is a good thing and they will work out the bugs in the next few weeks before the peak season starts in earnest, and things will smooth out. Or maybe this is just a small taste of what's ahead. We'll see.

This summer, pack your patience (and your perspective on how fortunate we all are just to be able to go anywhere again).

We passed through Schiphol yesterday to ATL and it was indeed a madhouse - more so than previously. Our flight (DL 75) was delayed taking off for 2+ hours, but we had a long layover in ATL, so made it home as scheduled.

The image of all those empty flights is kind of eerie.

Broken connections are always a concern, but I'll be transiting a Schengen country in October after 87 or 88 days in the Schengen Zone within the previous 180 days, and I really, really need not to get stuck in said Schengen country!

“Hint: It's only the first week of June. Most kids are still in school and their families have not yet started their summer travel.”

This is not entirely correct. For the Dutch and probably also for other Europeans, this weekend is a long weekend. Today, Sunday, is Pentecost. Tomorrow, Monday, is a holiday as well in the Netherlands. Last week Thursday May 26 was Ascension Day. Many people have taken time off between Ascension Day and Pentecost. This is not an excuse for the mess at Schiphol, but I just wanted to clarify that this wasn’t a normal weekend. Many passengers were returning from a holiday and just as much passengers were departing.

I've flown in/out of Schiphol on three roundtrip flights in the last four weeks and yes, it's been a mess. My first flight departed at 6.10 AM and when I arrived at 4.00 AM, the lines were 1.5 hours to get through security. Who would think the airport would be that busy at that time of the morning but EVERYONE is coming hours early, creating more of a problem.

Schiphol has rerouted all outgoing passengers through a common security line that winds through Departures 1 & 2 and even goes outside - under a temporary canopy. My waiting-in-line to get to the Boarding Pass Scanner - usually no line at all - was 55 minutes. (They've shut down all the scanners except in one funneled area). Then, I went upstairs and waited almost an hour to get through security.

Staffing and training issues are most definitely impacting outgoing traffic. One of the security checkpoints (empties into the terminal area between B and C concourses) is closed - not sure if that is because of the staffing issues or the "renovations" going on between Departures 2 & 3 (Why would you do that in the summer?).

Incoming passengers are also impacted. Coming back from two business trips, I had to check luggage. My wait for my bags was one hour, and on the second flight, 75 minutes. Transiting passengers have it a little better as they are avoiding the security and luggage retrieval issues... but many flights are delayed and that's creating connection issues. On my recent flight to Sevilla, the pilot CONGRATULATED all of us for getting to the gate on time! Unfortunately, we were then not allowed to depart for about 50 minutes! On my return, flying home from Lisbon, we sat on the tarmac in Lisbon for over an hour, delayed due to "traffic at AMS." On another flight, we arrived at AMS and sat on the tarmac for 25 minutes, waiting for Airport Personnel to arrive at the Gate so the pilot could "park the plane."

As @Dutch_traveler has said, these have been holiday times here lately. (My first flight was the weekend of May 1, which really was the start of this mess). Hopefully, improved staffing, more training scheduled to bring everyone up to speed quickly, and completing the "renovations" will improve service and reduce delays. But we're hearing that we should expect these difficulties through at least the end of June. UGH - I fly in and out of AMS the last week of the month - so I'm packing a lunch, bringing a book, getting there early... and not looking forward to it.

Thanks for your on-the-ground report, Ron. I am sorry that this has been such a pain for so long, and apparently will be for at least a little while.

I flew from Prague to AMS on Friday morning. As mentioned above, we had to go through a passport check to connect to our next flight but no checks on bags. I was seeing all of the articles about the chaos going on and was worried about making our connection, but we didn't see any lines or many people at all at the airport. Thankfully, we made it through one day before they stopped the incoming flights.

We flew in the morning of the 2nd. Out plane was delayed 1 hour leaving Houston because they had to wait on catering to put the food and drink on board, Sheesh! So the flight landed about an hour late. The airport didn’t feel that crowded. There was a bit of confusion getting into the passport control area - they made a bunch of us wait in a hallway just bunched up together without any order for about 5 minutes. Then they directed us around the corner to the area with organized lines and at that point, it only too about 15 minutes, maybe less, which I thought was reasonable. After that, it was easy to navigate through the airport. We always travel light and so don’t check bags, so I can’t comment on that part.
What I am really worried about is our departure to Bergen on the 13th I am hoping it is far enough away from the holidays that it will only be bad, not unbearable, and that we actually make it onto a flight that leaves on time. Our flight leaves at 11:45 AM, late enough that things could already be getting backed up.

All this hubbub in Europe with airports seems to take the edge off the “European Magic” everyone is so enamored by. Yeah, well, maybe that cafe is all well and good to sit for hours taking your carefree lunch and living that lifestyle. All breezy and smart. Once you leave, maybe not so much.

Report for those traveling via AMS:
DD flew from USA 5/26 thru AMS (arriving 5/27 am). KLM was delayed incoming to USA and thus delayed by 45 minutes to AMS with a 1.45 hour connection changed to 59 minutes. She remained inside secure area at AMS (so no long check in lines)--she had time to go through passport control and change terminals for flight, which was on time to her destination.