Dutch airport Schiphol capped at 478,000 flights per year to reduce noise

By Bart Meijer

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Amsterdam Schiphol airport's total flight capacity will be lowered by 4% next year in an effort to cut noise pollution, the Dutch government said on Friday.

Traffic at Schiphol, one of Europe's busiest hubs, will be limited to 478,000 flights per year from 2025, down from the current cap of 500,000 flights per year.

The government had said in September that it would likely lower the cap as it aimed to reduce disturbance for people living close to the airport by 20%.

Dutch airline KLM said the new cap was "incomprehensible" as it maintained that the use of quieter airplanes would be a better way to achieve noise reduction goals than cutting the number of flights.

"Reduction of flight movements is not an end in itself and is expected to be legally unsustainable. We await the advice of the European Commission," the airline said.

The Dutch arm of airline group Air France KLM, the largest airline at Schiphol, on Thursday had urged the government to rethink its strategy, as it repeated its pledge to invest 7 billion euros in quieter planes in the coming years.

The government said the new flight cap was expected to reduce noise by 15%, while it would look for ways to reduce an additional 5% at a later stage.

An effort to limit flights to around 450,000 was taken off the table last year following pressure from the industry and after objections from the European Union, which said the government should first look at other options to cut noise.

A Dutch court in March ordered the government to do more to cut noise pollution at Schiphol, saying the interests of people disturbed by the airport had been ignored for years.

(Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Mark Potter and Mark Porter)