Dutch coalition party NSC wants to accelerate plans to downsize Schiphol Airport

Coalition party NSC wants to accelerate plans to downsize Schiphol Airport. MP Olger van Dijk wants to implement a “form of night closure” from 1 January 2026 and additional research into whether a fourth approach route to the airport is desirable. He expects to get a parliamentary majority for these plans, even though coalition partners PVV, VVD, and BBB are reluctant to shrink the Amsterdam airport, the Telegraaf reports.

The Hague District Court previously ruled that the Dutch government unlawfully put the interests of local residents below those of the airport. It ordered the State to make good legislation and regulations that “provide a form of practical and effective legal protection” to locals within a year.

In response, outgoing Minister Mark Harbers of Infrastructure announced plans to limit noise pollution at the airport. He wants to ban loud planes at night, reduce the number of overnight flight movements from 32,000 to 27,000 per year, and temporarily close two runways in the afternoon. These plans should be implemented next year.

The NSC wants to do more and faster, Van Dijk told the Telegraaf. “The actual number of night flights in 2023 was already lower than 27,000. That is why I now want a significantly lower number of night flights. I’m thinking 20,000.”

The NSC parliamentarian also wants to introduce “a form of night closure as quickly as possible,” but by 1 January 2026 at the latest. Schiphol itself previously proposed a night closure from midnight to 5:00 a.m. for incoming planes and midnight to 6:00 for departures.

Van Dijk also wants to set up a committee of experts and residents of the provinces of Gelderland and Utrecht to “assess the usefulness and necessity” of a fourth approach route to the airport. That plan is in the pipeline for the upcoming airspace revision, but Van Dijk worries that it will “lead to concentration of noise pollution among large new groups of local residents in the provinces of Gelderland and Utrecht.”

Van Dijk expects the left-wing parties to support this plan, bringing a majority in sight. “ChrristenUnie and SGP also express support for this plan,” the MP said. That’s good because the NSC’s coalition partners in the new government - right-wing PVV, VVD, and NSC - are reluctant to limit flight movements as Schiphol.