Haarlemmermeer airport councilor Jurgen Nobel is critical of the municipality of Amsterdam. The councilor issued a press statement earlier today after the Amsterdam city council announced that it was now in favor of shrinking Schiphol Airport. That is not wise, says the alderman.
From now on, Amsterdam is no longer only against further growth of Schiphol, but as a shareholder of the airport it wants to actively pursue shrinkage. Amsterdam airport councilor Hester van Buren emphasized this today in an interview with Het Parool.
Jurgen Nobel, Van Buren’s counterpart at the municipality of Haarlemmermeer, responded surprisingly strongly to this in today’s statement: “The Amsterdam councilor very easily ignores the economic importance of Schiphol.”
‘Big economic blow’
The biggest point of concern is the impact that shrinkage might have on the economy, according to Nobel: “If the network function disappears, the economy, and therefore also that of Haarlemmermeer and Amsterdam, will really take a big hit. is not wise.”
The possible shrinkage of Schiphol seemed to be imminent for a long time. Pollution and nuisance to the environment were the basis for this. The now outgoing cabinet had even announced a guideline figure, but under pressure from the United States and the European Commission, it was recently decided crossed out. The shrinkage would not be legally substantiated.
Van Buren noted that ‘the economy has always been our number one priority. But aren’t sustainability, sleep, emissions and working conditions more important?’ That is why her municipality is now aiming for an eventual twelve percent fewer flights, a greater decrease than what the cabinet had in mind. Last summer, the SEO research institute calculated that this shrinkage was approximately 13,000 jobs would be lostapproximately one in ten aviation jobs.
Nobel thinks that it is still possible to (partially) eliminate the nuisance caused by Schiphol, without the airport having to make any concessions: “As the municipality of Haarlemmermeer, we have been advocating for cleaner, quieter and more economical aircraft for some time. Then you can improve the economic maintain Schiphol’s important network function and ensure less inconvenience.”