Microsoft employees volunteer at Amsterdam Airport as travel chaos continues

• Microsoft staff are helping out at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport amid ongoing travel disruption.
• Over 100 staff from Schiphol's partners, including Microsoft, help passengers in the terminals.

Microsoft employees are volunteering at one of Europe's busiest airports to help it cope with the summer holiday travel rush.

Schiphol in Amsterdam, like many other airports worldwide, is struggling to deal with the return of demand for air travel after the pandemic on top of staffing shortages.

Now, more than 100 employees from companies that partner with Schiphol, as well as contractors and staff from the Dutch infrastructure ministry, have been deployed across the airport, it said in a press release.

US tech giant Microsoft, as well as IT firm Cognizant, and logistics business Vanderlande are some of the companies that have partnerships with Schiphol.

The volunteers assist passengers in the terminal and answer any questions, according to the release.

The airport's office staff have already been helping out in the terminal in recent months, it added.

Schiphol said it created a group called "The Flamingos" — office employees in bright pink vests who help with passenger or luggage processing in the terminal once a week between July and early September.

Staff coming from the partner firms, such as Microsoft, have joined "The Flamingos" after going through training.

"It's heart-warming to see that large numbers of our partners' office staff want to help out in the terminal," said Patricia Vitalis, director of airport operations at Schiphol. "We are happy to accept that help with both hands. This not only helps travelers but also eases our staff's workload."

Microsoft and Vanderlande didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Amid the travel chaos, Schiphol announced on Thursday it will compensate some passengers who missed their flights between April and August because of hours-long queues for security control. It has also set a daily cap on the number of departing passengers to help reduce travel disruption.