Council of State scraps gov't-imposed flight limit at Schiphol Airport

The Council of State scrapped the government-imposed limit to the number of flight movements at Schiphol Airport to 478,000 per year. According to the Netherlands’ highest administrative court, the Minister did not carefully draft the Airport Traffic Decree that implemented the limit, and did not adequately show that fewer flights at the airport would reduce noise pollution for locals.

“The consequence of the ruling is that the previous Airport Traffic Decree from 2008 remains in effect, which did not specify a total number of flights per year,” the Council of State said in a ruling on Wednesday. The Council did keep the limit of 27,000 nighttime flights in place because “none of the parties objected to this part of the decision.”

The Airport Traffic Decree contains rules for airport use, such as aircraft noise, the number of flights permitted, runway use, and emissions. In May last year, the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management amended Schiphol’s Airport Traffic decree, capping the number of flights at 478,000 per year, with a maximum of 27,000 overnight flight movements, effective 1 November 2025. The intent behind the flight limit was to reduce noise pollution from the airport.

Airlines, locals, and the municipalities surrounding Schiphol all appealed against the decree for various reasons. Airlines did not want to limit their flights, while surrounding municipalities, locals, and environmental groups wanted stricter limits. And so the matter ended up with the Council of State.

According to the Council of State, the Minister did not adequately substantiate why he capped the number of flight movements at Schiphol. The Minister used the number of flights to serve as a limit for noise exposure, but not every plane makes the same noise. “So the sum of flights alone does not sufficiently reflect the total amount of noise that may be produced in a year.”

The Minister also did not make sufficiently clear that the amended Airport Traffic Decree would actually lead to a reduction in noise pollution, which was the amendment’s intended effect.

The Council of State also pointed out that the Air Traffic Control Act (NNHS), with which the government wanted to legally limit Schiphol to 500,000 flight movements per year before this further reduction in the Airport Traffic Decree, was never actually implemented. “The intention was to enshrine the NNHS in law, but this has not yet happened.”

The government is currently preparing a comprehensive amendment to the Airport Traffic Decree. This ruling by the Council of State will expire when this new Airport Traffic Decree comes into effect.