After years of consultation between residents, the aviation industry and politicians, earlier today became clear that there will be no outcome of this process. Parties could not reach an agreement about the future of the airport.
In December last year the consultation seemed to head up to an extra 25,000 flights for Schiphol until 2023. At the beginning of this year the president of the residents was taken out of the talks because of this threatening outcome.
Since the forced change of the spokesman residents forced a zero growth in the negotiations. Mayors and politicians of neighbouring cities and the Environmental Federation (Milieufederatie) backed citizens in that pursuit .
The aviation industry, Schiphol itself and its main user KLM, couldn’t live with this point of view. Earlier they dreamed about 540,000 or even 580,000 flights per year to and from Schiphol.
Without an outcome, the future development of the airport will be determined by Dutch government and parliament. Dutch traffic minister C. van Nieuwenhuizen still hopes there will be an agreement with residents later on.
Millions of euros
Schiphol and the Traffic Department have spent millions of euros on the consultation process. Although they organised numerous events that they claimed would map people’s concerns, most of the outcomes were only caught in cold numbers.
The main reason for the refusal of further growth of Schiphol is that earlier agreements weren’t met at all by the airport. None of the promises about noise reduction, night flights, cleaner environment have been fulfilled, while at the same time Schiphol was expanding even further.
In The Netherlands, there is a word for this kind of anti-social corporate behaviour: schipholling. Indeed, after the airport.
The consultation about Schiphol is presided by former minister H. Alders. He was already well known for his negotiations in the Dutch Groningen-area about the problems with gas winning and earthquakes which is destroying homes. There also he left residents stuck with their problems and did not present solutions.