The BoerBurgerBeweging would rather look ahead than look back when it comes to Groningen Airport Eelde (GAE). The party does not agree with the call from GroenLinks, the Party for the Animals and the SP for a parliamentary inquiry into the role of the Provincial Executive in decision-making about the airport in the past.
“A parliamentary inquiry takes a lot of time and energy and you can question what it yields. Lessons for the future perhaps. But we can already look at the future of the airport together,” says party chairman Gert-Jan Schuinder of BBB, which is the largest in the Provincial Council with 17 seats.
“Our line is: continue with sustainability and flying on hydrogen and electricity. Let Eelde become a leading airport with flights of four to six hours. Then there is no need to put a brake on extra flights, because there is a reduction in noise nuisance I think that’s a great vision of the future and I think that all parties are in favor of it. I think that GroenLinks is also up for it,” said Schuinder.
Schuinder says that airport director Meiltje de Groot has indicated that flight movements are necessary to keep the airport profitable. “I don’t mind that. But let’s also ensure that we receive a subsidy from the EU for making the airport more sustainable.”
BBB is in favor of doing a kind of ‘hackathon’ now about what the airport should look like in 2035. A hackathon is a joint brainstorming session in which different parties want to come up with a solution to a problem within a short period of time. “We have to do that together. We have to look at what investments are needed and how much the shareholders are willing to invest.”
Schuinder thinks it would be a good idea to have an independent party take a look at the future plans of the airport. That is the recommendation made by the Northern Court of Audit yesterday when presenting a critical report on an analysis that the shareholders had carried out in the past. He painted a too rosy picture about passenger numbers, among other things. A decision on investments worth millions was therefore insufficiently substantiated, with the result that it is difficult to make the operation of the airport profitable.
Yesterday, GroenLinks, also on behalf of the SP and the Party for the Animals, called for a parliamentary inquiry into the report of the Northern Court of Audit. The aim is to obtain as much information as possible about how the decision-making process took place. Given the fragmentation in the Provincial Council, it is unclear whether a majority can be found for this.