Category: News

The Dutch government researches possibilities to move Amsterdam Schiphol Airport at least partially into the North Sea.

This follows upon a proposal composed by entrepreneurs and residents living around the airport. Noise will not cause any inconvenience there. A runway at sea will bring relief to the entire Amsterdam region.

“Air traffic continues to grow, reducing flights is not an option”, says researcher Eef Haverkort to daily newspaper De Telegraaf. “Runways can be located in the sea.”

The other alternative to reduce the pressure on Schiphol is Lelystad Airport. Due to mistakes made in decision making the opening of this airport is yet again postponed for another year. Building an airport in the sea is the only viable option left if Schiphol continues to grow. Read more >

Version 1.1 of the Explane-app to register aviation noise is now available at Google Play. Update your apps or visit https://explane.org to download the newest version.

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V1.1 is based on the feedback we have received since the introduction of the initial app.

Enhancements are:

First registration with the initial app did not record the noise level. V1.1 does it correctly – from the very first measurement on.

Registration of the location is now cut with two decimals to ensure your privacy. Your location will be recorded on a district level now.

You are now able to see your own registrations of noise nuissance within the app. Please use the new button ‘Submitted’ in the app to view.

The corridor in which airplanes are detected has been broadened. We found that in the earlier version the app was not always able to find the plane that corresponded with the noise.

Read more >

Yesterday Dutch parliament voted yes to have taxes on aviation fuel. Government is now obligated to research if it can get support from other countries united under the ICAO lobby club.

Aviation industry doesn’t pay any taxes on fuel following an international agreement stemming from 1944. The agreement was made to reconstruct aviation industry after WW2.

Earlier this year the Dutch confirmed to introduce a passenger airfare tax. Preferably in cooperation with other European countries, but if this support can not be found, they will introduce it nationally.

Aviation industry not paying taxes on fuel gives it an unfair advantage over other forms of transportation. Dutch parliament wants to end this preferential position. Read more >

Too much residents of The Netherlands experience noise nuisance, part of them from aviation. The reason is simple: one thirth of all houses is built on a noisy location, says research from Dutch news tv RTL Nieuws. Too much noise makes people ill.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has published new guidelines for environmental noise. Road traffic can produce a maximum of 53 decibels, trains 54 dB, but aviation noise may not exceed 45 decibels.

RTL Nieuws has compared the new guildelines with data from the Dutch health institute RIVM and from the governmental basic registration database for addresses and buildings. From this analyses they learned that 37 percent of houses experience a noise level of more than 55 dB. This counts up to 3 million houses. Read more >

Do you have news that deserves to be published in this app? Please send it to info@schipholwatch.nl.

Our staff will evaluate your item and publish it when relevant for our user community.

SchipholWatch – a group of residents that is fighting aviation noise around Amsterdam Schiphol Airport – wanted to have an app to register airplanes with the decibels that you have to cope with.

On Twitter they asked if someone wanted to build this app as a volunteer. Roelof Mejier responded positively to this question. Now after 4 months of work in spare hours in evenings and weekends , here it is!

We appreciate that we can use the OpenSky-database to identify the planes that are flying above your head.