Netherlands To Ban Loudest Night Flights At Schiphol Airport

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch government wants fewer night flights at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport and to ban the loudest night flights by 2025 to reduce noise pollution, Infrastructure Minister Mark Harbers said in a letter to parliament on Friday.

The move, which will limit traffic at one of Europe's busiest hubs, comes after a local court in March ordered the government to do more to cut noise pollution.

Harbers added that the number of night flights would reduce from 32,000 to 27,000 in 2025, that the loudest aircraft, such as the Boeing 747-400, would be banned between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m and that the aviation sector is asked to replace part of its aircraft by less noisy aircraft.

He also said that the government is considering a complete or partial night closure of Schiphol as of November 2026, a plan Schiphol CEO last year endorsed in local media.

Schiphol agreed to increase the costs for using noisy aircraft with the goal of encouraging companies to opt for quieter planes.

The Dutch government last year tried to limit flights with the support of Schiphol to around 450,000, or 10% below 2019 levels, in an effort to limit noise.

But it bowed to industry pressure and objections from the European Union, which said it should first look at other possibilities to cut noise. In December Schiphol said it would have the capacity for 483,000 flights this year.

(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout; Editing by Sharon Singleton)