VVD Member of Parliament Daniel ‘fly, fly, fly’ Koerhuis wants to move private planes from Schiphol to regional airports and Groningen Airport Eelde in particular.
According to Minister Mark Harbers of Infrastructure, there is little demand for this and he also does not have the legal options to force Schiphol or the owners of private jets to move. Previously, this also played with holiday flights, which, according to VVD member Koerhuis, can be moved to the regional airports of Eelde and Maastricht Airport.
Koerhuis started on Tuesday evening in the House of Representatives about the relocation of private aircraft and even foresees that they will move from regional airports to even smaller airports, in particular just across the border. He thinks the minister should take more control over this.
According to Harbers, discussions have been held about this between Schiphol, Eelde and airlines, but the options are limited, so that in practice very few flights are moving. This would be mainly because there are limited opening hours in Eelde and, above all, no night flights. “If the operators wanted it anyway, then that’s up to the market.”
‘Drenthe wants wider opening Eelde’
According to Koerhuis, Eelde would like to extend those opening hours and the province of Drenthe would also be open to this. That was news to the minister. But if it were correct, air traffic control should also have capacity for it, he responded.
Harbers stated that the regional airports themselves are not waiting for private planes, but according to Koerhuis, Eelde is certainly interested.
According to the VVD MP, the Netherlands should expand the strict rules, administrative burdens and, above all, requirements for fire safety at small airports. Neighboring countries of the Netherlands would apply less strict rules. Harbers said in advance that he did not feel much for this because safety comes first. But he promised to “look into it.”