News item | 01-09-2023 | 2:45 pm
Fewer air transport movements per year, fewer flights and less noisy aircraft at night, and using runways that cause the least nuisance for the surrounding area as much as possible. These are the measures with which the cabinet wants to reduce noise nuisance around Schiphol from next year. Today, the cabinet submitted the plan to the European Commission, which must issue an opinion on it.
Last year, the government set itself the goal of creating a new balance between the importance of an international airport for the Netherlands and the quality of the living environment, specifically for local residents. To this end, the noise nuisance around the airport must be reduced considerably.
“Aviation brings a lot of great things to the Netherlands, provided that attention is also paid to the negative effects for the people living around the airport,” says Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management Mark Harbers. “Today we present the measures that can be introduced in 2024 to reduce noise pollution, as announced last year.”
The following steps are being taken to achieve a better balance and to reduce noise nuisance.
Stop anticipating enforcement
Since 2015, noise standards around Schiphol have not been enforced if exceedances are the result of using runways that cause the least nuisance to local residents. This is called ‘anticipatory enforcement’. This means that as few people as possible experience nuisance, but because the rules have not been laid down, noise standards and the legal position of local residents are not properly regulated. Local residents cannot rely on enforcement. In June 2022, the cabinet decided to put an end to this situation and to resume enforcement.
In order to preserve the positive effects of the system in terms of noise nuisance and safety as much as possible, a ministerial regulation will be introduced. There will then be room for a maximum of 460,000 air transport movements on an annual basis. The Social Council of Schiphol gave a positive advice on 28 August and indicated that the scheme could have a positive effect on balance on the nuisance experienced by local residents. This makes it possible to adopt the ministerial regulation in the short term, so that account can be taken of the distribution of the number of available flights at Schiphol. The final regulation will be published in the Government Gazette shortly.
Reducing the number of flights
As a European country, if you want to reduce capacity at an airport, you must go through a procedure, the so-called balanced approach procedure.
The Netherlands is the first country to go through this procedure on this scale. Part of that procedure is a consultation phase, in which all stakeholders can comment on the proposed plans. Many responses have been received from airlines, Schiphol, local residents and environmental organisations. All input has been weighed and assessed for effect and feasibility.
Based on that analysis, the Ministry has arrived at this final package:
- Using quieter devices at night (between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.)
- Further limiting the use of runways, which on balance lead to more noise nuisance
- Limiting the number of flights at night to 28,700 flight movements (there was a maximum of 32,000)
- Limiting the number of flights per year to 452,500 flight movements (these were a maximum of 500,000, but due to the effects of the corona pandemic, this was less in practice).
The measures are now being submitted to the European Commission. It must issue an opinion on this in order to implement the measures. After receiving this advice, the government can take a decision on this.
Making decisions to achieve the noise target
This package leads to a noise reduction of approximately 15% per day and 15% at night. This means that, in order to achieve the noise target of a total of 20% less noise nuisance, measures still have to be taken for the remaining 5%. The input from the consultation resulted in measures that can lead to a significant noise reduction. However, these are measures that cannot be taken within the current procedure (for example, a partial night closure of Schiphol), or take too long and therefore cannot lead to less noise nuisance in 2024 (such as the purchase of quieter aircraft).
Schiphol’s plan for a partial night closure is being examined to further reduce noise nuisance. The ministry is mapping out the consequences of this, a so-called impact analysis. The cabinet can then decide on the next steps.