Eindhoven Airport will stop facilitating commercial private flights from 2026. This is one of the measures the airport is taking to achieve the target of 30 percent less noise pollution and CO₂ emissions by 2030 compared to 2019. In total, Eindhoven Airport will delete 1,000 of the 1,560 annual available slots for private flights, which will also reduce maximum number of annual flights will be limited to 40,500. Schiphol also announced earlier this year that it wanted to ban private flights within two years at the latest.
Private aircraft traffic is disproportionately polluting, even compared to regular aircraft traffic. While a flight from Schiphol to London with a regular aircraft causes CO₂ emissions of 40 kilos per passenger, this is according to research with a private plane between 203 and 302 kilos. For this reason, the Party for the Animals has even included in its election manifesto that private planes should be banned completely, although this is not yet realistic.
Schiphol’s most popular ‘destination’
According to investigation of it Eindhovens Dagblad Two in five private flights via Eindhoven are shorter than an hour. One in six even lasts less than half an hour. The most popular ‘destination’ for a private flight from Eindhoven was Schiphol between 2020 and 2023. The lion’s share of this is done in rented aircraft, flights between Eindhoven and Amsterdam are often made to return to the home base or to pick up the next tenant.
Research by the CE Delft agency, commissioned by Greenpeace, showed that the number of private flights has increased since the corona pandemic. Eindhoven Airport has previously opposite Omroep Brabant said that he had noticed the increased demand, but also indicated that the number of private flight movements has remained stable. Eindhoven Airport has slots for 1,560 private flights annually, which are “usually well filled” according to a spokesperson. About a thousand of them will disappear completely. The rest remains open for private social flights, for example to repatriate people from abroad.
Less noise pollution
To spare local residents, Eindhoven Airport committed itself in 2019 to a target of 30 percent less noise pollution by 2030. Now the airport has also added a target of emitting 30 percent less CO₂ in the same year, thus complying with previous criticism from environmental organizations. To achieve both goals, Eindhoven Airport also wants to renew its entire fleet. Now only 17 percent of the aircraft that take off in Eindhoven are of the latest generations.