Who likes waiting for 6 hours? Especially at a gate. We found out that KLM passengers stay at the airport while the city centre is only a 14 minute train ride away. That’s why KLM (being the social airline) introduced Layover with a Local, a new service that turns your transfer into a trip. It connects the thousands passing through the airport, with the hundreds of thousands living in Amsterdam. And instead of making travellers queue up for the obvious tourist traps, we match them with interesting locals, motivated to meet new people. Like language students who’d like to practice a new language or expats who want to show off their hometown to people from their home country. The most active locals are rewarded with a KLM ticket to the country of their new found friend.

At the heart of the service is a smart app that handles the matchmaking and wayfinding. Travellers are matched to a locals in advance based on their shared interests, languages and prefered availability. With a simple guide and a complimentary train ticket to the city, we help travellers get from gate to meeting point and make sure they don’t miss each other. The app even buys the local and the traveller a free drink at a typical Amsterdam bar. When it is time to go, the app gives them a heads up using real-time flight information. We created an end-to-end user experience helping KLM passengers throughout their journey by making the Layover with a Local as easy and low-barrier as possible.

Layover with a Local was launched in February and still live, so we do not have the complete results yet.

Layover with a Local was featured in major publications read by frequent travellers from all over the world: Forbes, The New York Times, Conde Naste, USA Today and KLM even got interviewed on CNN about Layover with a Local.

Since launch, more than 3000 locals have already signed up to participate in the service

More importantly, with Layover with a Local, we turned waiting time into quality time. Layover with a Local is on its way to become part of the standard premium service of KLM. Because for KLM, a layover is just one more way to take you somewhere.