Schiphol boss Ruud Sondag is disappointed that the downsizing plans for the airport have been canceled. In News hour he says that the situation is not tenable for local residents, that the airport is in a legally shaky position and that Schiphol cannot handle 500,000 flights a year at all.
At the beginning of this week, outgoing Minister of Infrastructure Mark Harbers announced that the planned downsizing of the airport will not go ahead. Last summer it was determined that from November of this year, instead of 500,000 flights, 440,000 flights per year would be allowed to depart from the airport. That number was later adjusted slightly upwards, but now, under pressure from the European Union and the United States, the plan has been shelved for the time being.
Sondag actually supported the plans to downsize. He even wanted to go further than the cabinet by banning private jets and canceling night flights. Those plans were canceled last September. Sondag calls it disappointing that the maximum number of flights has now returned to 500,000. “Our neighbors are once again getting the short end of the stick.”
Sondag is referring to the noise pollution for residents of Schiphol, which he says has been increasing for years. “If you don’t have an answer for those people, if you actually ignore it a bit, then they get angrier and angrier. And I understand that.”
Legal quagmire
Moreover, Sondag fears he will end up in a “legal swamp” if the problems for local residents are not addressed. “The situation we are in is not very legally stable and we have known that for years. The Human Environment Inspectorate already told the minister in 2021: be careful, because I can no longer properly enforce this.”
Last Wednesday, a day after Minister Harbers’ announcement about the cancellation of the downsizing plans, it was announced that more than five thousand residents of Schiphol may sue the Dutch state for years of noise pollution. According to the judge, the residents’ collective claim is sufficiently well-founded to start a lawsuit.
500,000 flights not possible
What also plays a role, says Sondag, is that Schiphol cannot handle 500,000 flights per year at all. “We keep talking about shrinkage, but we are still growing. In 2023 we will reach 435,000 flights. I know that 460,000, which we had aimed for, was already asking a lot from our air traffic controllers and the airlines. That 500,000 is not possible at all.”
Sondag calls the fact that Minister Harbers has yielded to pressure from the European Commission and the United States a “decision he has had to make”. “But I find it special that this pressure actually undermines the interests of our neighbors, with whom we want to live in harmony.”
Heavy files
Sondag became Schiphol’s interim CEO a year ago after his predecessor, Dick Benschop, resigned due to the chaos at the airport. In the previous summer months, travelers had to deal with long queues and canceled flights. Sondag will leave as boss again on March 1, 2024.
Sondag says that in the meantime the long queues have been resolved and that a lot has been done about the working conditions of the staff. “But that noise problem – and I haven’t even mentioned CO2 emissions, because that is also coming – are heavy issues that will last for years.”
A year ago, NOS and Nieuwsuur conducted research into the working conditions of baggage handlers at Schiphol:
2023-11-19 22:16:58
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