Locals present 10 point plan to reduce Schiphol nuisance for surrounding residents

A group of residents who live around Schiphol came up with a 10 point plan to concretely reduce noise and other nuisance caused by the airport, and thereby increase the quality of life for locals. The plan includes banning night flights and only allowing flights from 9:00 a.m. on weekends, NOS reports.

The aviation sector is slowly starting up again after being brought to a near halt by the coronavirus crisis. The Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, will be discussing plans for Schiphol's future on Thursday. The government wants to allow the airport to grow further than the 500 thousand takeoffs and landings that were carried out last year, on the condition that the aviation sector takes actual steps to reduce nuisance and become more sustainable. But there is resistance among the opposition parties and from local residents.

The residents who live around the airport, united in the Schiphol Environmental Council, decided to be proactive and present their own ten point plan against the nuisance:

1. No flights between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.
2. Only fly from 9:00 a.m. on weekends
3. More rest periods per day by making less use of secondary runways over densely populated areas and alternating routes on primary runways over relatively sparsely populated areas
4. Fewer flights per hour
5. Optimizing takeoff procedures to reduce nuisance and always starting from the start of the runway
6. Optimizing landing procedures to reduce nuisance, including by always landing in gliding mode with the engines turned off
7. Less use of routes over populated areas
8. Limiting ground noise
9. Establishing nuisance restrictions in laws and regulations that are strictly enforced
10. And developing an alternative airport location for the long term. 

These measures must all be implemented in conjunction, Matt Poelmans, leader of the Schiphol Environmental Council, said to NOS. "This is because a measure that concerns improvement for one area can mean a deterioration in another area. For example, stopping night flights is beneficial for residents around the Polderbaan and Kaagbaan, but it in turn leads to more nuisance at other runways that hardly have any night flights, but absorb much of the growth during the day."