Schiphol area residents want 50% cut to annual flight movements

Schiphol can halve its annual flight movements from 500,000 to 250,000 without affecting the accessibility of the Netherlands, according to the Working Group for the Future of Aviation (WTL). This group of local residents made new calculations in response to the nitrogen problems around the airport, NOS reports.

The Amsterdam airport currently does not comply with the nitrogen regulation. It needs a nature permit to continue to exist. And to get that permit, it needs to drastically reduce its nitrogen emissions.

The government has already announced that it intends to decrease Schiphol’s flight movements to 440,000 a year. But Schiphol, which plans to increase capacity with a new terminal, KLM, and the rest of the aviation sector are all against shrinking. According to the sector, a contraction would be disastrous for the Dutch economy. A smaller network would make the Netherlands less attractive for the establishment of large companies, they argue.

But according to WTL, flight movements at Schiphol can drop much more than 60,000 without damaging the Netherlands’ accessibility.

The coalition agreement states that the destination network should primarily serve travelers to and from the home market of the Netherlands, the WTL said. On intercontinental flights, however, most passengers are transfer passengers who get off at Schiphol and immediately board another short flight to elsewhere in Europe or the other way around.

Reducing the number of weekly long-haul flights means fewer transfer passengers are needed to fill the seats on intercontinental flights, and fewer European flights are needed to deal with the transfer passengers. This way, Schiphol can manage with just over 300,000 flight movements per year, and all selected destinations are still reachable.

Another 40,000 European flights can be taken over by fast trains, the WNL said. And another 20,000 flights can be canceled to selected business destinations with which the Netherlands maintains too little trade.

According to the WTL plans, Schiphol would then have 206 direct destinations serviced by 250,000 flights for 35 million passengers a year, largely from or destined for the Netherlands. And that while maintaining good accessibility to the Netherlands for home market passengers.

“Schiphol remains a smaller hub with a large network. International transport in the Netherlands will not be affected,” said WTL chairman Hans Buurma to NOS. He points out that fewer flights not only reduce nitrogen emissions, but also CO2 emissions, particulate matter, noise pollution, and sleep disruptions.