Schiphol Airport has installed a series of new baggage lifting aids at all of its 385 workstations.
The airport has also launched a number of trials for the full automation and mechanisation of baggage handling processes.
Esmé Valk, Chief People & Transformation at Royal Schiphol Group, said:This makes the work of baggage employees lighter. A significant improvement. We tested, bought and installed the lifting aids in rapid succession while the regular baggage process continued. We made every effort to achieve this together with the six baggage handlers, Aviapartner, dnata, KLM, Menzies, Swissport and Viggo.
We are proud to be able to offer this to employees, because a safe, good and pleasant workplace is our top priority.
The installation of the new aids helps in the fulfilment of requirements made by the Netherlands Labour Authority, with employees strongly encouraged to use the lifting aids via the use of information campaigns.
In order to install the aids, Schiphol worked closely with the handling companies to develop the technology over the course of the last two years.
Significant changes have also made to the baggage halls themselves in order to accommodate the new equipment, including the relocation of pavements and the modification of guard rails with minimal disruption to baggage handling whilst work was carried out.
Several new trials have now begun in Schiphol’s baggage halls, with the last six months seeing a prototype robot independently loading baggage departing from Schiphol into baggage carts and containers destined for the aircraft.
