Passengers from Schengen and non-Schengen territories departing from the Schiphol Airport of Amsterdam are now eligible to pre-book time slots for security checks.
The new changes came following the successful launch of the free service to Schengen flights earlier this year, which led the airport authorities to expand it to non-Schengen flights, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
The new possibility of booking a selected time of the day to go through a security check leads to more planned and stress-free travel.
From now on all persons are eligible to plan in advance when they are going to pass the often-lengthy process and also not be obliged to wait in line with other nervous passengers.
Authorities in Schiphol Airport have confirmed that the service is available at no cost between three days and 90 minutes before departure for non-Schengen flights or more than 60 minutes for flights within the Schengen Area.
Reservation depends on the availability of time slots, after these are not equal to the number of seats available on each flight, according to the Mayor.EU report.
In order to book, a person needs to visit the dedicated webpage or use the mobile application of Schiphol.
Travellers must indicate details of their destination and group size, and the system will suggest good slots to book that correspond to the flight departure time and also the expectancy of crowds.
According to the airport, the time slot is valid for 15 minutes, when travellers must show up with their QR code. If passengers arrive early, their time slot will not be available, and they will have to wait for their turn. In contrast, if they arrive late, they will miss the opportunity and will have to head to the regular line for travellers without a reserved time slot.
However, there are some exemptions applied. Travellers with assistance and those with priority statuses are exempted from the requirement to book security checks after the airport has already separate access to security control for them.
In April this year, the airport announced that passengers would be eligible to go through the security check at a time of their choice by reserving a time slot before departure.
Back then, it was also emphasised that the possibility to reserve time slots would be free of charge for all travellers. By introducing such changes, Schiphol became the fourth large airport in Europe to offer such a possibility.
Last month, Schiphol airport officials announced that they are working together with baggage handling companies to test new technologies that would revolutionise baggage handling.