Hundreds of climate activists block private jets at Schiphol, some are chained to aircraft | Abroad

The activists are under the wings and fuselage, making it difficult to remove them. Dozens of people also cycle around the planes. The intention is not to allow any private flight to take off from Schiphol throughout the day, a spokesperson told ANP. “Schiphol has to shrink considerably. It is not logical that so many private flights depart from the airport every day.”

Many activists are meanwhile taken from under the planes and taken from the airport on buses. There are still groups of about thirty people under most private jets. There is no hostile atmosphere.

Private planes fly to and from Schiphol from their own runway. The activists of Extinction Rebellion and Greenpeace gathered this morning in the adjacent Amsterdamse Bos with banners and flags. On it were texts such as “SOS for the climate” and “Flights are no longer possible”. Another group arrived at the airport at the same time from the other side with bicycles. According to RTL Nieuws, the gates in the Schiphol parking lot were cut open.

In the meantime, more than a hundred demonstrators are also holding a noisy ‘seating action’ in the airport shopping center. They make their message clear with drums and triangles: more trains, fewer planes. “We are unstoppable, another world is possible”, you can hear. They also demand “climate justice”. In the meantime, sympathizers clap along.

Local residents of the airport in Rotterdam are also participating in the action. They are holding a signature campaign against the growth plans. They fear a poorer living environment due to more noise pollution, more emissions of unhealthy substances and less sleep.

Schiphol security is leaving the activists in Schiphol Plaza alone for the time being. Guards keep an eye on things from a distance.

Figures from research agency CE Delft commissioned by Greenpeace show that more private flights took off from Schiphol and Rotterdam in the first nine months of this year than in the whole of 2019, the last year before the corona pandemic. According to flight data, more than a third of those flights were shorter than 500 kilometers and almost 11 percent were even shorter than 250 kilometers. Emissions per passenger on a private flight are about five times higher than on a scheduled flight.