Air traffic landing at Schiphol currently approaches the airport from three locations in the Netherlands: from the North Sea off the coast of North Holland, from Rotterdam and from Lelystad. A fourth approach point will be added in two years’ time: in the south-east of the province of Utrecht or in the south-west of the province of Gelderland.
According to the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management, Mark Harbers, this is the result of a reorganization of the Dutch airspace. Due to the arrival of the F-35 it is necessary to expand an existing military airspace in the northern Netherlands. As a result, a smaller military airspace in the south-east of the Netherlands will disappear.
This smaller airspace still means that planes landing from Central Europe, the Middle East and other countries must first fly a little further north, before approaching Schiphol from Lelystad. “It will soon be more efficient”, because planes can fly directly, “resulting in less harmful emissions and less noise pollution.”
Han van Staveren doesn’t believe it. “You get more noise disturbance in Utrecht.” Van Staveren lives in Elst, in the south-east of the Utrecht province. “If that new approach point arrives here, it will have a huge impact, because from a height of about 2 kilometers, downhill air traffic will arrive that is not there now.”
120 flight movements per day
From pieces that Harbers sent to the Chamber it turns out that this is 42,000 flight movements per year. “That’s 120 a day,” says Van Staveren. “And the ministry can say those planes will go around villages and nature reserves, but it’s simply not possible if you want to get them in direct line with Schiphol.”
Klaas Wagenaar from Wageningen in Gelderland is also worried. “We now have 120 planes departing a day and arriving at a distance of about 6 kilometers. This is bearable, especially in relation to the annoyance people in Aalsmeer have from air traffic. The new approach point will add 120 arriving planes, to 2 at an altitude of 2.5 kilometers. It’s annoying and I personally don’t like it. “‘
Letters from Utrecht and Gelderland
The letters from the provinces of Utrecht and Gelderland show that their councils are also concerned about what the environmental impact assessment committee ‘a group of new noise disturbances‘is mentioned from Schiphol Airport. The committee traces the environmental consequences of a project.
“We think it is important that the effects on the soil are mapped”, Utrecht writes already in March 2021. “We do not rule out the possibility that the introduction of the approach point could lead to much more ground discomfort. Can you clarify how the routes will be designed?” Gelderland asks in October of the same year.
“The drawing and the calculations on the new routes are only at the beginning,” replies Harbers. “We still don’t know where the routes will be in the future. Now we are preparing the next two years, what the new routes will be like. After that there will be another official decision and in due course everyone will be able to think about it. Only when the routes are resolved will it begin the execution “.
‘We are shipwrecked’
Meanwhile, Wagenaar and Van Staveren have read that residents do not like it “at all”, because consultation is limited to administrators, social organizations and airspace users. “It will have huge consequences,” says Wagenaar. “For tourism in Gelderland, for nature, for house prices, for the possibilities of building more.”
“We are in a climate crisis, a nitrogen crisis and a housing crisis,” notes Van Staveren. “And then the cabinet decides to reorganize the airspace, in order to allow Schiphol to grow in the future and to open Lelystad Airport: we are being held back, we are really being fooled.”
Nuisance around Schiphol
3,000 residents near Schiphol filed a lawsuit against the state this summer. They require aircraft noise to be drastically reduced. You can see how bad that annoyance is in this video:
