Far fewer night flights, no more private jets, entry prohibited for the noisiest aircraft. On Tuesday, Schiphol will present a package of measures that should significantly reduce nuisance for local residents and employees from autumn 2025.
The airport has definitively abandoned a ‘second Kaagbaan’, an old plan for a new take-off and landing runway next to the current Kaagbaan. This decision finally gives the region more clarity, for example for housing. And there will be an environmental fund of 10 million euros per year, for example for home insulation.
“The toll of what we are doing now has become too great,” said Ruud Sondag, interim president of Schiphol, in an explanation on Monday. “This is the way forward to quieter, clean and better aviation. Space at and around Schiphol is scarce; we have to make choices.”
The announcement is special. There has been talk for decades about measures to limit flight nuisance. However, according to many local residents, the economic interest of Schiphol always took precedence over the well-being of residents. Our credibility has been declining for years. “The sector is used to coming up with solutions in backrooms that are ultimately insufficiently concrete.”
Paris Climate Agreement
More than his predecessor Dick Benschop, Sondag, in office since November 1, seems prepared to confront the airlines. “The dogma of ‘growth, growth, growth’ that Schiphol has honored for years no longer holds.” He emphasizes the need for new national rules – in line with the Paris climate agreement.
Research institute TNO reported last week that the aircraft at Schiphol emit enormous amounts of carcinogenic substances. Here environmental rules fall short; they only cover factories and other fixed sources of emissions, not mobile sources such as aircraft.
The ban on night flights is the most striking measure. This should greatly reduce the number of people with serious sleep disorders around the airport. Schiphol cancels all flights from 00:00 to 05:00. Only flights are allowed to land between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. “In this way we try to take into account Schiphol’s hub network.”
The reduction must take effect in November 2025. According to Sondag, 10,000 night flights will disappear every year. Last year there were a total of almost 24,000 night flights, between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. The airport has a maximum of 32,000.
A night closure is not unique in Europe. Frankfurt, Paris Charles de Gaulle and London Heathrow have similar closing times. Transavia is hit hardest by the measure: more than half of the night flights that Sondag wants to cancel are from Air France-KLM’s budget subsidiary.
Air France-KLM, responsible for 60 percent of all flights at Schiphol, will not be happy with the new contraction, in addition to the cabinet plans mentioned. Sondag: “We would like to find a solution with the sector. But is there no consensus? Then we disagree.”
summary judgment
Schiphol presented its plans the day before the ruling of the court in Haarlem in preliminary relief proceedings against the previously announced shrinkage of the airport. KLM and other companies are taking legal action against the state, the airport and the residents’ organization Right to Protection against Aircraft Nuisance (RBV). KLM cs are against the reduction advocated by the cabinet, from the current (tolerated) maximum of 500,000 flights per year to 460,000 in November 2023 and 440,000 a year later. The cabinet wants to reduce the noise in this way.
Sunday: “Our plans are separate from the lawsuit. We have been working on this since November.” According to him, Schiphol can take these measures without extensive legal procedures. The interlocutory proceedings concern, among other things, the question of whether the government has followed European rules correctly when limiting flight capacity.
With the ban on private jets, Schiphol responds to protests from Extinction Rebellion (XR) and Greenpeace, among others. At the end of March, XR campaigned against business jets in Eindhoven. Sondag now also says what opponents have been saying for some time: private jets would produce seven times more noise per passenger and twenty times more CO2 expel. Last year, Schiphol had 24,600 private flights.
Read also:Ruud Sondag is used to working in ‘wasps’ nests’, he has to clean up at Schiphol
Does this measure now pave the way for more private jets at Lelystad Airport, part of the Schiphol Group? “We are not creating alternatives,” says Sondag. “You can also easily reach business destinations such as London, Paris and Geneva with a scheduled flight.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of April 4, 2023