New plans for politicians and airlines with Schiphol

On Wednesday 4 September, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management presented the final package of measures to reduce noise around Schiphol and restore the legal protection of local residents.
With this package, noise pollution around Schiphol will be reduced by 17%.
“I am proud of this package and think that we have a good balance between the interests of the environment and those of aviation,” says Minister Barry Madlener (I&W).
The new package will be submitted to the European Commission for an opinion.
After that, the government can take a final decision on the package of measures and lay them down in regulations.
Stricter noise standards will be introduced at night, which means that airlines will have to deploy quieter aircraft during those hours.
In addition, KLM has promised to deploy quieter aircraft at night.
Schiphol will charge significantly higher fares to airlines that use noisy aircraft.
For example, the use of the quietest aircraft is encouraged at the airport.
KLM and Transavia are also committed to rapid fleet renewal by 2025.
These new aircraft make less noise, which results in noise gains for the surrounding area.
A rest period on 2 lanes was one of the proposed measures in the package, but it has been scrapped.
Both the sector and local residents reacted negatively to this proposal.
The maximum number of flights allowed at night will increase from 32,000 to 27,000.
Before the summer, the previous government assumed that a reduction to 460,000 to 470,000 was needed to achieve the noise target.
But based on, among other things, more detailed information provided by the sector in the summer, it seems that the effects of some measures are greater than expected.
The exact amount of the maximum number of flights is currently being calculated.
More clarity on this audit is expected in the autumn.
At the same time, the government wants to take the next step by officially notifying the European Commission of this package.
This is important because of the intended introduction of the measures by November 2025.
In the notification, the government maintains a bandwidth in the number of flight movements of 475,000 to 485,000.
Checking the calculations may still lead to a different outcome.