The chief executive of KLM is urging the Dutch government to rethink its plan to cap flights at Schiphol airport.
Marjan Rintel wrote an open letter to Barry Madlener, the infrastructure minister, yesterday (5 December) stating that the government “is on the verge of of making a significant decision that could have unnecessarily large negative consequences” for the Dutch aviation industry.
She said the government should promote newer, quieter planes instead of cutting flights.
“I want to prevent the government from making a careless and incomplete decision,” Rintel said.
“Your ministry seems to be steering towards shrinkage, while this is not necessary to achieve the noise goal.”
According to Reuters, the government is expected to announce a new flight cap for Schiphol this month after indicating in September that it would likely allow 475,000 to 485,000 flights annually. The current cap is 500,000 flights annually.
The CEO added: “As you know, KLM is investing €7bn in fleet renewal in the coming years.
“In the calculations commissioned by your ministry, the new aircraft are barely considered, and the noise reduction that can be achieved with them is almost entirely ignored.
“Ignoring the impact of fleet renewal is contrary to the balanced approach.”
Rintel said that higher tariffs for current generation aircaft could push airlines to use newer, quiter planes, which could add room for 5,000 more flights than the ministry’s current model assumes.
She also said reducing the cap could result in “retalitation” from the global airline industry, and that this would impact KLM’s network.
“The fact that retaliation is not a theoretical risk became apparent last year when your predecessor presented a reduction scenario that did not meet the requirements of the balanced approach and was subsequently taken off the table,” the CEO added.
In March, a Dutch court ordered the government to do more to tackle noise pollution at Schiphol, telling it that the interests of local communities disturbed by the airport had been ignored for years.
