European Commission dithering about permitting Schiphol downsizing: report

The European Commission is hesitating to give the Netherlands permission to reduce the number of flight movements at Schiphol Airport, insiders told the Telegraaf. According to the sources, the Commission thinks the Netherlands did not pay sufficient attention to other measures to reduce noise pollution, like quieter approach routes at the edges of the day and not building homes near the airport.

Minister Barry Madlener of Infrastructure recently submitted a fourth adjustment to the balanced approach for reducing noise from Schiphol by 17 percent. The balanced approach process stipulates that governments must first consider quieter aircraft, then spatial planning, and then other operational measures. Downsizing is the very last step, and even then starting only at night.

According to Piet Visser of the Dutch Union of Aviation Technicians, the European Commission is very aware of what precedent allowing this downsizing would set in the rest of Europe. “There are bigger interests at stake in the EU than just Schiphol. Brussels is very cautious and wants to do everything carefully.”

Insiders in Brussels told the newspaper that the Netherlands needs to put more consideration into operational measures first before it can cut flight movements. In an official response, the European Commission said that the recently submitted downsizing plan was “incomplete,” according to the newspaper. “Once we have received all the information, the Commission will start assessing the request. There are three months for that.”

The Ministry of Infrastructure told the newspaper that the government did follow all the steps carefully and gave due consideration to operational measures. “The part of the noise target that remains after these measures will be met by a reduction in the number of flights,” the Ministry said.

The adjustment Madlener submitted last month involves cutting Schiphol’s flight movements from the current 500,000 takeoffs and landings per year to a bandwidth of 475,000 to 485,0000. Schiphol already doesn’t use all its allotted flight movements, so this reduction would not result in fewer flights.