JetBlue has already indicated that it will take legal action if their landing rights are threatened.
Schiphol, one of the largest and busiest airports in Europe, is in a turbulent phase. The cabinet led by Minister Mark Harbers of Infrastructure and Water Management recently announced new measures to reduce the size of the airport. Remarkably, these measures are less drastic than previously proposed.
Harbers has set a new maximum of 452.500 flights per year from November 2024 to limit noise pollution. Earlier he had mentioned a limit of 440.000 flights, which was considerably stricter. This new number represents a significant reduction from the current maximum of 500.000, but it is still less drastic than expected.
In addition to limiting the total number of flights, the cabinet also wants to limit, but not completely ban, the number of night flights. This is in contrast to Schiphol's own proposal, which wanted to scrap most of the night flights. The minister also intends to limit the use of runways that cause a lot of nuisance.
KLM
The Dutch airline KLM is not pleased with the new measures. According to president-director Marjan Rintel, cleaner and quieter aircraft can better help limit nuisance, without drastically reducing the number of flights. The US Department of Transportation has already warned that if the Netherlands scraps take-off and landing rights for US airlines such as Delta Air Lines, the same could happen for KLM in the US.
The United States has already warned that cooperation between the two countries cannot be guaranteed if the Netherlands continues to shrink Schiphol.
Another crucial element is the decision that the House of Representatives has yet to take. The chamber may decide to declare the subject 'Schiphol' controversial. This could lead to delays in the implementation of the shrinkage plans. With the elections approaching, political parties are cautious about making hard statements.
The VVD has her expressed support for what they'reform plans' calls. They even go further than the current policy of Minister Harbers by calling for a night closure of Schiphol. This shows that there is some political support for an approach that limits nuisance at the airport, although opinions differ about exactly how this should be done.
JetBlue
While the discussion about the shrinkage of Schiphol continues, the American budget airline JetBlue has decided to set foot in the Netherlands. The airline will start flights from New York this week and will soon fly from Boston. JetBlue purchased the necessary slots in March from the slot coordinator ACNL. This introduces a new competitor for existing players such as Delta and KLM on the route between Amsterdam and New York. JetBlue has already indicated that it will take legal action if their landing rights are threatened. The company is combative and threatens legal action on both sides of the ocean if they are not granted landing rights. This adds an extra layer of complexity to the already complicated situation.
private flights
Although Schiphol itself had previously proposed scrapping private flights as part of their eight-point plan, this has not (yet) been adopted by Minister Harbers. The same applies to a complete ban on night flights, a point on which the cabinet is less strict than Schiphol's eight-point plan.
