Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, one of Europe’s largest air hubs, will, from 2025-2026, ban night flights and private jets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and noise pollution.

Aircraft will be banned from taking off between midnight and 6 a.m. and will not be allowed to land before 5 a.m., the airport’s CEO Ruud Sondag said in a statement. The measures are designed to limit the inconvenience to residents. “The only way forward is to become quieter and cleaner, faster.”

60 000 fewer flights

Sondag’s move made headlines worldwide and caused a shockwave in the transport world and the columns of business newspapers. A CEO making less is more a new mantra?

More so because Dick Benschop, the previous CEO, who resigned in September because he could not solve the problem of the structural shortage of staff, had still hinted that Schiphol wanted more cargo and that it planned to increase the number of flights at Schiphol to 540 000, subject to a noise reduction.

But in June 2022, the new government in The Hague, formed after the recent parliamentary elections, changed its tune: Schiphol would only be allowed to handle 440 000 flights a year from the end of 2023, 60 000 fewer than currently allowed.

After all, Schiphol also has to meet the climate targets. Plus: a recent study by TU Delft states that nitrogen emissions from air traffic are five times higher than assumed.

No more private jets and noisy aircraft

“For too long, we have only thought about growth and too little about the price to pay,” said Ruud Sondag. The ban on night flights will bring “peace to the surroundings”, after years of noise complaints – Schiphol is 15 km from Amsterdam.

The ban on private jets is because they cause “a disproportionate amount of noise and C02 emissions per passenger”. Private jet flights account for about 20 times more CO2 emissions than a scheduled flight, the airport said.

Of these flights, 30 to 50% are holiday flights to destinations such as Ibiza, Cannes, and Innsbruck. Moreover, plenty of scheduled services are available to the most flown destinations by private jets.

Aircraft that make a lot of noise, such as the Boeing 747 jumbo jet, should also be gradually banned. Schiphol Airport will also definitely forgo a new, additional runway.

Legal action

Whether it will all come to this is another question. The measure will also impact employment and the operation of the various airlines operating at the airport. Major airlines, including KLM, Delta, and Easy Jet, had announced in March that they were taking legal action against the Dutch government to protest the measure.

Today, for example, a court in Haarlem is already ruling on a suit by KLM, a subsidiary of Air France-KLM. In other words, it is a Dutch national company suing its own state, while the Dutch state owns 5,9% of KLM, 9,3% of Air France-KLM, and 69,8% of Schiphol.

KLM operates 60% of its flights from Schiphol, the fourth-largest European hub after Istanbul, Heathrow (London), and Roissy (Paris). If the limit of 440 000 flights takes effect, KLM would be forced to cut 30 destinations (24 European and six long-haul flights).

Lelystad Airport

In general, Schiphol feels that in recent years, the balance has tipped too much toward the Dutch economy and airlines at the expense of the well-being of residents and the environment.

According to current models, the new measures would reduce the number of seriously annoyed people around Schiphol by about 17 500 (16%) and the number of residents with severe sleep disturbance by about 13 000 (54%), Schiphol says.

However, the airport does hope to reserve 2,5% of all flights for cargo flights, as they are of economic importance. This is difficult now because airlines must use those slots regularly to be entitled to specific take-off and landing times. Cargo flights, on the other hand, go irregularly. Changing the rules would require a consultation at the EU level.

To be clear, Schiphol maintains that Lelystad Airport should open. The airport is part of the Schiphol Group. The Schiphol Group wants to take over about 45 000 flight movements from Schiphol at Lelystad Airport in the province of Flevoland. Currently, the government is holding up an opening because it does not yet have a nature permit due to deficiencies in the nitrogen calculation.

No European first

Several European cities already ban night flights, by the way. For example, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg (and many other German cities), Zurich, Warsaw, and London have night flight bans between midnight and 5 or 6 a.m.

There are also several citizens’ groups and organizations around Brussels Airport and Liège Airport calling for a ban on night flights or against a new permit precisely because the impact of noise pollution on the health of people living nearby is becoming increasingly apparent. Brussels Airport is allowed 16 000 night flights a year. Most of these are by courier company DHL.