I spent a morning touring Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in search of new amenities and services to share.
Along the way my tour guide, Marianne de Bie (who reminded me that she’d been my tour guide almost ten years ago!) shared some stories about what the Schiphol staff did to try to make stranded people more comfortable during the “the ash cloud.”
The airport brought in shower trucks (the kind you see at festivals) and after a few days asked the First and Business class lounges with on-site showers to open them to passengers; which they did. Stranded passengers were also treated to sandwiches, free Wi-Fi, movies and offered toothpaste, socks, and underwear that the airport had quickly purchased to hand out.
“We have dollar stores like anyplace else,” de Bie told me, “But the underwear supplier made a mistake and included 500 pairs of expensive brand-name boxer shorts for men. Those turned out to be very popular.”
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