Amsterdam unhappy with ministry's reasoning to allow Schiphol to use other runways

Amsterdam thinks that the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (I&W) is not able to give proper reasoning for why Schiphol is allowed to move its flight traffic to a different runway during construction. The decision to move planes to a different runway will cause a nuisance for hundreds of thousands of Amsterdammers, the Alderwoman for Traffic, Hester van Buren, has warned.

The alderman has expressed her dissatisfaction with the promised concept plans in a letter to the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management, Barry Madlener. The airport wants to work on the Buitenveldertbaan between May and September and has asked for permission from the Ministry of Infrastructure to use the Oostbaan more often at night. The ministry has included these exemptions in a draft regulation.

The municipality of Amsterdam does not see any good reasons for this. They feel the perspective of nearby residents has been completely overlooked. “Noise pollution is not being limited, it is being relocated," the alderwoman wrote.

The increased use of the Oostbaan can have a serious impact on the quality of life for the densely populated city districts of Amsterdam-Noord, Centrum, West and Zuid, the Labour party lawmaker wrote. “A total of approximately 400,000 people live in these city districts,” she said. Their ability to have a good night’s rest “is at risk of being disturbed.”

Van Buren also raised a similar issue this past summer, when the alderman expressed her disapproval with Schiphol and the ministry about the manner in which the airport communicated plans to work on the Zwanenburgbaan runway between June and September last year. At the time, the ministry had promised her that measures would be taken to protect residents’ interests if runway maintenance were to take place again.

Not only did she question whether the parties were sticking to their pledge, she also expressed irritation in her letter as to why the municipality, which is a 20 percent shareholder of the airport, was not included in discussions over the maintenance plans earlier. “Given the impact of the major maintenance on the Buitenveldert runway, the [mayor and aldermen] would have liked to have been involved in the process much earlier,” she wrote on Friday.

“The major maintenance is regular maintenance that is scheduled years in advance.”

One additional issue related to the maintenance which arose over the winter is that it also covers a period towards the end of June when the NATO Summit will take place in The Hague. Airlines operating at Schiphol Airport will have to cancel, reschedule, or move around 30 percent of their flights that week due to the arrival and departure of thousands of NATO delegates, and journalists covering the Summit