After three months of major maintenance, Schiphol’s Aalsmeerbaan will reopen to air traffic at 6 p.m. Initially, the runway was to remain closed until mid-July, but the work was completed earlier. The timing of the maintenance has been criticized a lot. In combination with the crowds at Schiphol, the closed Aalsmeerbaan caused many flight cancellations.
Schiphol warns local residents that the runway will not be fully deployable in the coming month. Because the landing aid systems have also been replaced, Schiphol must first be sure that they work properly. To this end, a number of measurement flights are carried out and the runway cannot be used in poor visibility.
Schiphol’s timing to overhaul the runway during and after the May holiday was much criticized. As a result, air traffic had to be handled on other runways all that time, but they could not always be deployed when the wind came from the northwest.
In combination with the passenger traffic in the terminals, many flights were regularly delayed or sometimes even diverted to other airports.
Even more job maintenance
From September to the end of November, Buitenveldertbaan, Zwanenburgbaan, Polderbaan, Kaagbaan and Schiphol-Oostbaan will successively be closed for maintenance, but the work on those runways will take much shorter.
