Few airports in the world have six or more runways. Those large airports are therefore located near major cities, such as Chicago and Dallas. Chicago O’Hare has the most: eight jobs, followed by Dallas-Forth Worth (7). Then come Denver, Detroit and… Schiphol, all three of which have six runways. In Airtime we will be looking at all six runways at Schiphol in the near future. This time the Polderbaan.
The Polderbaan is the longest, widest and newest runway at Schiphol. It is 3,800 meters long, 60 meters wide and ‘only’ twenty years old. The five other courses have been there for much longer. The Polderbaan is also the furthest away from Schiphol-Centre. Anyone who has ever taken off from or landed on it knows that a ride between the gate and the Polderbaan can take up to 20 minutes.
Because of the distance, the Polderbaan also has its own control tower: Toren West. The air traffic controllers in the main tower cannot see the runway and approaching traffic properly, so all air traffic on the Polderbaan is handled by four additional air traffic controllers in the separate tower.
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The official name of the Polderbaan is 18R-36L, referring to the compass directions of the runway: 180º and 360º. The ‘R’ and the ‘L’ have been added because the Zwanenburgbaan and Aalsmeerbaan are in exactly the same direction.
To avoid confusion among pilots and air traffic controllers, radio traffic one eight right or three six left said. Those two parallel runways have similar additions: the Zwanenburg is called 18C-36C (van centre) and the Aalsmeerbaan the opposite of the Polderbaan, 18L-36R.
Parking lot for government aircraft
In 2014, the Polderbaan was closed for a long time for maintenance and to serve as a parking lot for government aircraft. In March of that year, government leaders and ministers from all over the world came to The Hague for a nuclear summit, the NSS.
The Polderbaan was then full of Boeing 747s, Airbuses, smaller private jets and even one Ilyushin Il-96 of the Russian government. It is now virtually unthinkable that such an aircraft will ever be seen at Schiphol again.
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Air Force One at Schiphol
US President Obama was also there, but he was allowed to park his Air Force One much closer to Schiphol-Centre. Not that that was really necessary, because Obama didn’t have to taxi long anyway. He became with Navy Onethe presidential helicopter shuttled between Schiphol, Amsterdam and The Hague.
On the Youtube channel of NH Airtime you will find all previous broadcasts and longer uploads of new aircraft, airlines and lounges at Schiphol. NH Airtime is broadcast every Wednesday on the NH television channel at 5:20 pm (with reruns until the following evening).