The lines at Schiphol are too long. That is why travelers are only allowed to enter the departure hall from Friday if their flight departs within four hours. So there is no point in coming extra early. Four questions for a queue expert about streamlining airport crowds.
1 Does this measure make sense?
Yes. “If someone is present six hours before a flight instead of four hours, then he has two hours to get in the way,” says Dorine Duives, assistant professor in the transport and planning department at TU Delft who specializes in crowds of people. People who come extra early clog up the system that is already under pressure from the shortage of personnel. “The more people walk somewhere, the lower their walking speed and the higher the number of interactions between travelers.”
At a bottleneck, such as a security check, a stream of people behaves more like a stream of rice grains than water, says Duives. “Once the flow stops, the friction doesn’t just break down. You must first make it emptier than you would expect based on its capacity, and from there you can get it flowing again. That is not possible at Schiphol in the middle of the day. That is why they have to ensure that they do not reach their maximum capacity from the start of the day.”
2Is this a logical approach?
Yes. There are four ways to deal with crowds, many of which Duives has already seen put into practice in recent weeks. “First, you can improve the flows. Pulling flows of people apart, creating new rows, intervening as early as possible,” says Duives. “Two is making the space as big as possible, removing obstacles. You can also see if you can add space, spread people further so that they are less of a burden to each other. If those options do not yet have the desired effect, there is only one way: admit fewer people at the same time.”
The difficult thing for Schiphol is that people flows are already tightly regulated. Rows are already formed, spaces are cleverly arranged. “So if things go wrong, there are few extra measures to take.”
3 Is there anything else you can do as a traveler?
Not really. As an individual traveler you have little influence on making a flight. Travelers can at the most aggravate the traffic flow because they become anxious. “If you are sure that you are going to catch your flight and you know in advance that the line will take an hour, then you stand in it calmly,” says Duives. “But if you’re not sure, then you get restless, you get out of line to have a look, or push. That irritated crowd also needs to be guided again, but that also costs staff.”
4 What can Schiphol do about that trust?
“At the most, they can do something about the provision of information,” says Douwes. “People are letting people know how long the average wait time is and showing that the fear of missing the flight is unfounded. But yes, one story in the media about someone who still missed their flight and the confidence is gone.”