Schiphol flight movements will be cut by over 25% during NATO Summit in June
Schiphol Airport will see takeoffs and landings fall by anywhere from 25 to 30 percent during the NATO Summit scheduled for June in The Hague. The meeting of the military alliance nations is expected to bring 45 heads of state, along with their defense and foreign affairs political leaders, as well as 6,000 delegation members and 2,000 journalists.
The closure of airspace over The Hague in anticipation of their arrival will coincide the planned closure of the Buitenveldertbaan, a key Schiphol west-east runway that runs along and above the A4 motorway. The runway cannot be closed during the winter months because it is essential to the airport’s de-icing infrastructure. Instead, the runway is set to close from May 10 to Sept. 28, the airport and Ministry of Infrastructure confirmed.
The NATO Summit will take place from June 24-25, with attendees flying in and out from June 21-27, an airport spokesperson told ANP. Summer season flights will be dropped from the schedule during this period, to guarantee NATO delegation members are “properly” received, the spokesperson said.
The spokespersons said regular airline passengers will only be minimally impacted. However, the passenger airline industry sees the poor timing of the maintenance project as part of a pattern of decisions negatively hitting the sector. The expected cancellations in June could lead to millions of euros in damages for airlines based at Schiphol, the second largest airport in the European Union.
“Such a major restriction has a major impact on everyone. We assume that a solution will be found. There are already flights in the systems that can be booked and we assume that we can fly them and do not have to cancel them,” a Transavia spokesperson told the Telegraaf. The KLM subsidiary typically operates the second or third most flights at the airport behind KLM, competing directly with EasyJet.
“We understand that this NATO Summit has consequences for air traffic,” said Marnix Fruitema, the chair of Barin, an association of airlines operating in the Netherlands. “However, we hope that this will be included in the debate on the contraction of Schiphol and the increase in port fees. It just keeps going. Aviation cannot be harmed indefinitely.”
This will likely cause further problems with private jet arrivals and departures, said Ton van Deursen, the head of private jet support business JetSupport, which also operates at Schiphol. Many private flights are expected to be moved to Lelystad Airport as a result of the traffic jam.
“Our customers can still divert, but airlines are under a lot of stress. They can hardly go anywhere else for six days. If the wind happens to be in the wrong direction, this can lead to even fewer flights,” he told the Telegraaf.
Schiphol said that all stakeholders were notified in a timely fashion, with the runway maintenance plan publicly announced in early October. The Ministry of Infrastructure published the plan two weeks ago, opening the issue up for the public to comment via online messages through January 26.
