Now that the Dutch Supreme Court has prohibited the State from eliminating the lawlessness around Schiphol via a fast route (Experimental Regulation), the question is whether this will succeed via the route of the EU Balanced Approach Regulation (BAR). The prospects are not favourable. Under pressure from opponents, the objective has been watered down. The amended notification will at most lead to a small reduction of the ceiling of 500,000 flights, which is unacceptable to local residents.
They would be better off pinning their hopes on the RBV lawsuit, in which the judge ruled that the EU Regulation is subordinate to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). On that basis, local residents can claim protection by the government against infringements on their health and damage to their living environment. This requires a ‘Fair Balance’ between the interests at stake. Such a fair assessment is currently not available in the aviation legislation. The judge gives the minister a year to provide for this.
Residents could, by the way, embrace the premise of the Balanced Approach – that reduction actually is the last resort. After all, the past 20 years have shown that fleet renewal and nuisance reduction have not led to less nuisance, on the contrary, it has actually increased. There is no reason to assume that this will be different in the coming years. In fact, the so-called innovations such as NADP2 (for take-offs) and TBS (for landings) are counterproductive, because they cause unacceptable concentrations of nuisance.
In the past nothing has come of nuisance-reducing measures such as silent glide landings (CDAs), nor has higher approaches or a postponed reduction by 3000 night flights. This has also meant that the compensation for the primary runways, which have been fully flown from the start, has disappeared. Now that all the stopgap measures offer little solution, shrinkage is literally the only alternative. The evaluation of the Alders Agreement will confirm this abundantly. Schiphol must give back the undeserved growth to 500,000 flights. The outdated growth earning model is also off the table for good.
Fair balance
The principle of the Fair Balance must form the basis for the upcoming Airport Traffic Decree (LVB), in which the size and distribution of the ceiling are laid down: a combination of runway usage rules and enforcement points with limit values. The MRS must refuse to approve a Capacity Declaration and Usage Forecast 2025 that do not meet these conditions. Strong arguments for this are that the available capacity is lower than is wrongly assumed. This must take into account night closure (without transfer to the day), major maintenance (without shifting of nuisance), and limitation of hub traffic.
Subsequently, real nuisance indicators (such as number of flights, peaks, altitude, part of the day, respite) must validate the calculated annual average nuisance standard. This requires a fine-meshed, hybrid noise measurement network in which the virtual enforcement points coincide with the physical measurement points. Local nuisance and individual legal protection are otherwise
impossible. The MRS can therefore not agree to the proposed new Aircraft Noise Regulation System (SVR). The once promised ‘Development of Schiphol in balance with the environment’ can only be achieved through a fair trade-off between environmental quality (what is bearable) and network quality (what is necessary), in that order. To this end, the residents are intensifying the combined strategy of actions: Consultation & Negotiation, Lobby & Communication, Vision & Research and Monitoring & Judiciary.
Matt Poelmans, Residents’ Representative Civic Advisory Board Schiphol (MRS)
August 2024
