A campaign group called Red Schiphol is fighting to reverse a decision that will cap flights at one of Europe’s busiest airports, cutting them to under 450,000 a year.

The cap is designed to reduce aviation emissions and combat overtourism in Amsterdam – but Red Schiphol says the measure will only divert air traffic to other European airports like London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle. This would jeopardise 84,000 Schiphol-dependent jobs.

Red Schiphol Campaign Manager, George Chichester, describes Schiphol Airport as “a national asset that helps the Netherlands to punch above its weight in terms of global business connectivity”.

Chichester told Skift.com: “The airport directly employs over 2000 people and supports many more jobs throughout the wider economy.”

Will other airports follow Schiphol’s example and cut back on flights?

There’s a certain amount of caution in the fightback against the move – with many campaign supporters preferring to remain anonymous in the meantime because of the “aggressive response by certain environmental activist groups”, according to a report in the New Daily.

Red Schiphol supporters include businesses, community activists and trade bodies.

Schiphol already faces labour shortages (as do many airports), and last June, it set a cap of 70,000 passengers a day during peak northern summer travel season.

Last month, the Netherlands government proposed a cap at Schiphol of 440,000 flights a year – a measure which would compel KLM, the Dutch subsidiary of Air France-KLM, to cancel some flights.

Schiphol Group, which manages the airport, stated that the reduction from 500,000 annual aircraft movements to 460,000 was a “necessary interim step” to ensure certainty in the run-up to a new Air Traffic Decree. This would assure airlines and residents, the statement said.

The new limit will take force in November this year, and in 2024, flight movements will be slashed further to 440,000 a year. That’s a reduction of 11.4% on the 496,826 flight movements the airport recorded in 2019 when 71.7 million passengers passed through it.

In recent years, the Dutch capital has generated lousy publicity over hordes of drunken revellers, primarily British male tourists, taking over the narrow streets of the canalside Old Town.

In 2019, close to 20 million tourists visited Amsterdam. The city’s infrastructure was said to be groaning at the seams, and some ranked it alongside Venice as a prime example of overtourism. Even more tourists were forecast in 2020…

Then came Covid.

While visitor numbers are now recovering fast, Amsterdam wants to manage the flow and deter “nuisance tourists”, such as wild buck’s night parties.

From May, visitors will no longer be allowed to smoke marijuana on city streets. Amsterdam will slap curfews and restrictions on alcohol sales, bars and the city’s famous 24-hour sex trade. Amsterdam is warning tourists planning to hit the Dutch capital for “a messy night and getting trashed” that they could get arrested and charged instead.

MEANWHILE, KLM says the Netherlands should not go it alone on airline emissions.

“Being the only country in the world to set up a national CO2-ceiling does not match with an internationally operating sector and international policy,” the airline argues.

Accommodation in the Netherlands is stretched by more than just tourism. The cost of looking after a seemingly unstoppable flood of asylum seekers is expected to be €3 billion (AUD 4.85 billion) higher in 2023 than originally forecast because of soaring refugee numbers coupled with an accommodation shortage.

Between 50,000 and 77,000 refugees are expected to turn up during 2023, Dutch newspaper NRC reports. Putting a cap on refugee arrivals is proving to be a lot more difficult than putting a cap on flights.

 

 

 

Written by: Peter Needham

 

 

 

 

 

 

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