Solution for aviation problems within reach
Residents of the Schiphol area (ORS) and the Working Group on the Future of Aviation (WTL) have called on political parties to focus the coalition agreement after the elections on limiting the number of flights at Schiphol to 270,000 to 350,000. As you know there is a cap now of 500,000, but thanks to corona, that number has dropped dramatically. However, the government wants to increase the number of flights considerably in the coming years.
270,000 (optimum number of flights) to 350.000 (maximum) seems like a big step backwards, but Schiphol as a transfer airport has unnoticeably grown much larger than the Netherlands actually needs for its economy. More air traffic is really not necessary for a good connection with the 170 to 220 destinations that matter to the country. Enough for all home market passengers, both business and private. This fully complies with the new Aviation Bill 2020-2050, which focuses on this connection.
Transfer passengers: no value but drawbacks
This concerns 50% to 70% of the passengers from 2019. The number of transfer passengers can be considerably limited, because they have no added value for the Dutch economy. Together with ticket prices on a level playing field with the train mean that cheap air travel cannot come back and millions of people can take the train to London, Paris and Frankfurt. Large companies have announced that they are replacing half of their business flights with video conferencing.
Schiphol does not have to shrink for this. Back to 500,000 flights causes unnecessary fun flights and the notorious over-tourism. It is sufficient to focus the recovery of Schiphol on a much lower traffic volume. As a result, aviation causes much less nuisance, night flights can be omitted and aviation can make a full contribution to the Paris Agreement to reduce CO2 emissions.
This press release – dated February 5, 2021 – was substantiated by an article in Dutch with tables that are not so easy to translate.