Not only on the roads, but also in the air, traffic is increasingly encountering emission-reducing measures. Schiphol presents its strategy to lead passenger air traffic into a more sustainable future. With a ban on night flights and the banning of private planes, Amsterdam Airport wants to become cleaner.
Often, the traffic turnaround is only understood in terms of dirty combustion cars and the many active driving bans aimed at reducing emissions from road traffic. But air traffic also contributes to the emission of pollutant-rich exhaust gases and is accordingly increasingly becoming the target of environmental protection measures. This is exactly what is happening in the Netherlands, where Schiphol's flight schedule could soon look different than it does today.
By 2025 at the latest, Amsterdam's major airport, the departure point for numerous transatlantic flights, wants to ban night flights. In concrete terms, this will mean that no flights at all will be allowed to take off from the tarmac between midnight and 6am - as well as that no landing will be possible at Schiphol before 5am. At the same time, take-offs and landings of private jets will also be prohibited. Recently, these have increasingly become the object of controversy. By banning private planes, the Dutch airport now wants to take a strict stance against this segment of aviation. A kind of environmental zone for aircraft is then to be created at Amsterdam Airport in order to take the first concrete steps against the negative environmental impacts that the aviation sector brings with it. Noise-related flight bans are also to be introduced gradually in the future to limit the traffic of the noisiest aircraft - such as the Boeing 747. For the long-term goal of the measure - the airport informs - remains the creation of a "quieter, cleaner and better aviation".
A project that is certainly beneficial for the environment and for all those who live in the vicinity of the major airport. Indeed, residents and environmental groups, such as Greenpeace, have already reacted positively to the announcement. However, this is not the case for other stakeholders who feel restricted in their activities by the initiative. Airlines and tour operators, for example, have been particularly critical of the initiative. Among them is the Schiphol-based airline KLM. The national airline of the Netherlands is mainly surprised by the airport's decision. In the fight against environmentally harmful emissions, KLM would have "rather wished for a joint approach by the aviation industry". It would have been possible to "reduce CO2 emissions and noise pollution on a larger scale" by reforming the entire aviation sector - and not just one airport. Since the benefits for climate protection - according to critics - could be out of proportion with the disadvantages for the profitability of Schiphol and the airlines operating there in this way.
According to the airport, the ban on night flights alone could affect around 10,000 planes a year. The airport and the government, however, stand by their decision - motivated by the need to achieve the climate targets they have identified. Because of noise and pollution, Schiphol must reduce the number of flights from a maximum of 500,000 to 440,000 annually by next year. From November 2023, an initial cap of 460,000 flights will apply. Finally, the regulations in the already existing low-emission zones in road traffic will also become stricter and stricter in the next few years and will be transformed into zero-emission zones. Why shouldn't air traffic also make its contribution to this? KLM and four other airlines have now filed a lawsuit against this. How the legal dispute will ultimately end and what changes will actually come to the aviation sector in the Netherlands remains to be seen. However, it cannot yet be ruled out that other airports will follow Amsterdam's example.