Dutch Court Hears Airline Groups’ Bid To Stop Schiphol Flight Cap

A group of aviation industry players including Royal Dutch KLM Airlines has filed summary proceedings against the Dutch government’s decision to implement a controversial cap of 478,000 flight movements at one of Europe’s busiest airports, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, which is KLM’s hub.

The case was due for a hearing April 14, a KLM spokesperson said.

The group comprises A4A, ACN, Barin, Delta Air Lines, IATA, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Martinair, Transavia and TUI. The legal process was launched after a Dutch government decision to implement the flight cap at Schiphol, with plans for it to come into force in November 2025.

The step is the latest in a long process which began when, in order to reduce airport noise, the Dutch government put forward a proposal to cap flights at Schiphol in 2022. After a long legal battle, it was established that the government could not simply impose a flight cap but needed to follow the European balanced approach procedure, a series of steps that EU member states must follow to reduce noise at their airports.

In early March, the European Commission (EC) gave its decision on the plan the Dutch government had submitted, concluding that there were some shortcomings in the Dutch government’s process but that it had largely followed the balanced approach.

The Dutch infrastructure ministry has since been working on amending the Airport Traffic Decree to set the annual flight cap at 478,000, and 27,000 flights for night hours.

The amendment process is due to be completed before the capacity for the winter season is declared, on May 8, a ministry spokesperson told Aviation Week.

The ongoing dispute hinges on the interpretation of the EC’s conclusion, with the Dutch authorities focusing on the fact the EC said it had “largely” conformed with the balanced approach procedure and saying that it addressed the EC’s concerns in a response it sent April 12.

But airlines are focused on the shortcomings the EC highlighted.

Those shortcomings included a failure to take full account of the impact on noise reduction of planned fleet renewal as well as a focus on commercial aviation, exempting general aviation—such as private touristic or medical planes—and business aviation from the measures, despite their contribution to noise.

The Netherlands had also not fully explored the potential of noise-reducing flight procedures, such as innovative landing and navigation techniques, the EC said.

“Aviation must become cleaner, quieter, more efficient,” a KLM spokesperson said. “That is why KLM will continue to invest €7 billion [$8 billion] in new, quieter aircraft and will continue to use quieter aircraft at night. Despite these efforts, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management is sticking to shrinkage and is ignoring the criticisms from the European Commission’s decision. This is unacceptable and that is why various parties in the aviation sector are initiating summary proceedings.”

KLM also “has no other option for its future prospects than to initiate summary proceedings against the minister’s decision,” the airline said.