Banning night flights at Schiphol would cost Transavia over €200 million, airline says

Closing Schiphol at night would cost Transavia “over 200 million euros,” Transavia general manager Marcel de Nooijer told BNR based on the airline’s internal calculations. “I deeply regret the approach Schiphol has chosen,” De Nooijer said. Transavia uses about a third of the night-time flight movements at the Amsterdam airport.

Last year, interim Schiphol CEO Ruud Sondag announced that the airport wanted to ban night flights to reduce noise pollution and other nuisances for local residents. No flights will depart from the airport between midnight and 6:00 a.m., and no flights will land between midnight and 5:00 a.m. Schiphol plans to implement the ban at the end of 2025.

Transavia called the night flight ban a one-sided decision by Schiphol, accusing the airport of not working “in conjunction with each other and in dialogue” to find a “total solution.” According to De Nooijer, a night closure won’t solve the nuisance experienced by locals. “That’s nonsense,” he said, referring to research from Frankfurt where a night closure was implemented. “The nuisance experience increased because there is more flying in the edges prior to the closure,” he said.

The night closure would ba a massive financial setback for Transavia, De Nooijer told the broadcaster. According to him, Schiphol previously said that the total costs for the entire sector would be 50 million euros. “For a party like Transavia alone, it is more than 200 million euros. That is exactly what you get if you come up with positions and statements one-studiedly without entering into dialogue with each other and creating a story together based on facts and arguments.”

De Nooijer said he contacted Schiphol about the matter but hasn’t received a satisfactory response. “I don’t get an answer I can use, which I find very bad. It indicates to me that Schiphol is taking such big steps without any real concrete substantiation.”

Whether Schiphol will actually ban night flights remains to be seen. Outgoing Minister Mark Harbers of Infrastructure recently announced plans to cut night flights at the airport by 5,000 next year. The new PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB coalition wants to limit night flights but not ban them outright.