Amsterdam Airport Schiphol has joined forces with IBM in a four-year contract to manage a baggage handling system to speed up the transfer process for bags bound for connecting flights.

Vanderlande Industries and IBM will design and build a system that enables transfer luggage to move quickly between all of the airport's baggage handling areas in an attempt to almost double baggage handling capacity and improve passenger satisfaction, while significantly reducing the handling cost per bag.

Mark Lakerfeld from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol said: "With this baggage transport system we will be able to manage the future growing stream of passengers and baggage."

Schiphol serves the third largest international air travel market in the world and is one of Europe's largest airports with over 40 million passengers a year.

At peak travel periods, more than 52,000 pieces of transfer baggage are handled at the airport each day.