Amsterdam Schiphol To Cut Night Flights and Private Jets
Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam has announced a new slate of restrictions designed to make the busy flight hub quieter and more environmentally friendly.
The airport intends to stop all night flights by the end of 2025. Additionally, the airport said “private jets and the noisiest aircraft will no longer be welcome.” Combined, these changes are expected to lead to a substantial reduction in the noise nuisance caused by the airport.
“Schiphol connects the Netherlands with the rest of the world. We want to keep doing that, but we must do it better,” Ruud Song, CEO of Royal Schiphol Group, said in a statement.
Song said the only way forward is to become a quieter, cleaner airport and to do so quickly. It’s an effort that will also support the airport’s focus on reducing CO2 emissions in line with the Paris climate agreement. Airport officials said the proposed changes will provide certainty that noise and emissions will be structurally reduced.
Schiphol officials also hope the changes will stimulate innovation in the aviation system and called on the country’s government to enshrine the changes in law.
“We have thought about growth but too little about its impact for too long,” Song said.” We need to be sustainable for our employees, the local environment, and the world.”
Under the new rules, aircraft will no longer be able to take off between midnight and 6 a.m. from the Amsterdam airport. In addition, there will be no landings between midnight and 5 a.m. The changes are expected to result in 10,000 fewer night flights annually.
The new measures also call for banning private jets and small business aviation, which airport officials say cause “a disproportionate amount of noise nuisance and C02 emissions per passenger.” These flights are responsible for about 20 times more CO2 compared to a commercial flight, according to the airport’s statement.
Between 30 percent to 50 percent of the private jet flights using Schiphol are headed to popular vacation destinations such as Ibiza, Cannes, and Innsbruck. Schiphol officials said there are plenty of commercially available flights to those destinations.
All three of the changes will apply no later than 2025 and 2026, the airport’s statement said. All of which should reduce the “severe nuisance” impacts from the airport for about 17,500 people.
As part of today’s statement, airport officials also revealed that they are scrapping plans for an additional runway at Schiphol. The airport intends to ask the Netherlands government to revoke the reservation for the new runway project.
“Land for this runway has been reserved at Rozenburg, Rijsenhout, and Schiphol-Rijk. This reservation puts unnecessary pressure on the already scarce space in the area,” the airport’s statement says.
There has been some initial support for the announcement already expressed on social media.
“We and others have been campaigning for a ban on private jets and an end to excess emissions inequality. This is a great first step,” the activist group Scientist Rebellion Netherlands, tweeted.
There are also reports that the new restrictions may lead to some airlines cutting routes, which in turn, could potentially increase flight prices.
Today’s news is just the latest attempt by officials at Schiphol to reign in the number of flights at the airport and address CO2 emissions. In March, officials announced plans to limit the number of international flights leaving the airport in order to help address the climate change crisis.