Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, one of Europe’s largest and busiest, may have to dial back its operations to meet environmental standards that are coming into force or find another way to meet noise and nitrogen standards.
The Dutch government, under pressure from environmental groups, agreed two years ago to meet the standards for a ‘nature permit’ for the airport, and it now appears that cutting take-offs and landings from 500,000 a year to 400,000 a year may be necessary.
Because of the airport’s importance to the Dutch economy, that’s not a popular solution. The government’s original plans were to develop the airport at Lelystad into a second major airport for Amsterdam, directing holiday-oriented airlines there to keep Schiphol’s slots available for business and cargo flying. However, there are environmental issues for Lelystad as well, not limited to a recent revelation that studies of the impact of its expansion on local areas were done incorrectly.
Other possible mitigations for Schiphol might include reducing speed on nearby motorways to lower noise level and buying out farmers in the area to reduce nitrogen compounds that arise from farming so that aircraft emissions could continue, but fall under the limit.
However, the buy-out proposal has met stiff opposition, including a farmers’ demo against it yesterday, with 200 farmers traveling in a tractor convoy to the airport to present their counter-proposal: solve the problem quickly by closing the airport and selling the land to farmers.
