Lelystad regional airport can be expanded to cope with up to 45,000 take-offs and landings a year, according to a new report into the future of the airport on the Flevoland polder.

Moving flights to Lelystad will free up airspace at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, said the report, drawn up by former environment minister Hans Alders, for the government.
Alders recommends a phased in approach: 25,000 flights up to 2015 and then 20,000 more. In particular the second phase will require careful monitoring of the noise nuisance and the effect on farming and nature, the report said.
Schiphol
The hunt for more aircraft space has been prompted by fears that Schiphol has already reached its limits and will not be able to accommodate an forecast extra 70,000 aircraft movements a year, news agency ANP said.
The government said in 2009 it wanted to expand the small regional airport outside the new town to take bigger planes and to focus more on business travellers. Eventually European charter flights would also be shifted to the polder airport, the government said at the time.
But last December, the Supreme Court tore up the plans, saying ministers’ refusal to set down flight paths gave rise to too much uncertainty for surrounding farms and made it impossible to assess the environmental affect of the expansion.
Earlier stories
Supreme Court scraps Lelystad airport expansion plans