And let Hanne Buis come from that quiet area in the polder. The ‘Chief Projects & Assets Officer Royal Schiphol Group’ (a title that is almost as long as a Schiphol queue), who was promoted to Chief Operating Officer of the airport on 1 June. In that brand new position, she was immediately allowed to sit down with Sven Kockelmann and Fidan Ekiz (topper!) in Op1, to explain what is going wrong at Schiphol. But this lady had already been thoroughly purified by media courses longer than her new title, and maneuvered flawlessly with superficiality along all thorns. So of course Schiphol couldn’t do anything about it.
Horribly beautiful how she managed to explain that there are no staff available. Sven and Fidan suggested that if the salary of the security personnel could go up, new employees might queue instead of the passengers. ‘Oh yes, Schiphol was already planning to do that; over the next two years, from 11 to 14 euros per hour’. Why that hadn’t been done a few months ago, so that the problems had not happened, she kept beautifully ‘mediated’ in the dark wings. Dexterous and apparently so empathetic with the inescapable fate of passengers who had missed their flights, she slid through the loopholes of the interview using generalities, sweet-voiced.
The length of the queue didn’t really show ‘flying shame’, by the way. Still very strange to see again and again (not only with flying, but also traffic rules and in all kinds of other areas) that people find it necessary that there are rules and good behavior, until. At that moment there is usually a reason to say: ‘not for me right now’. Your hair would stand on end. I will not mention here what kind of ‘hair’ that could be. Before you know it you are just ‘cancelled’ these days.
Perhaps all that curious behavioral baggage should be observed a little differently through the scanner of life. Not just looking sharp at a desirable image or with a judgmental look. On to a more humane flight up! But first those low salaries are quickly ‘lifted’ to a human level.
This column was previously published in Luchtvaartnieuws Magazine. Click here to order a single issue or take out a low-cost subscription.
