Talks to reach broad deal on Schiphol growth fail, residents slam chairman

Efforts to reach a widely-backed agreement on how Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport can grow past 2020 have failed, the NRC reported on Wednesday.

The commission looking into the issue is due to present its recommendations to infrastructure minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen on Wednesday evening, but that will not now be a joint effort, the paper said.

The NRC says it was told by the residents’ delegation to the talks that no agreement has been reached.

Instead, the commission’s chairman Hans Alders will advise the minister to allow 10,000 extra flights to and from Schiphol up to 2023, in line with the airport authority and airlines’ wishes.

Residents and local authority officials had called from a freeze on aircraft movements up to 2023 and MPs have backed that position. Schiphol has already reached 500,000 flights, which was the upper limit set earlier for 2020.

The residents association says it is ‘astonished that Alders is following the aviation sector’s wishes to be allowed to grow further past 2020’. They fear an increase in noise pollution if the airport is allowed to operate more flights. Local authorities, meanwhile, want a new limit on growth so that they can meet targets on building new homes.

The government wants to open up Lelystad airport to commercial flights to relieve some of the pressure on Schiphol but that project has run into trouble with both Brussels and locals who fear a surge in aircraft noise.

No comment

Broadcaster NOS said neither Alders or Schiphol will comment on claims that the talks have flopped ahead of today’s last-ditch session.

All parties involved in the talks are due to meet on Wednesday afternoon, ahead of the evening’s presentation.