Schiphol CEO: ‘Lelystad Airport open’ | Financial

“A decision to open the airport is in line with previous cabinets. The decision-making is finished. Lelystad Airport is not immediately needed because of the corona crisis, but the number of flight movements from before the crisis will return soon,” Benschop said on Sunday. Before the corona crisis, Schiphol was at the maximum number of flight movements of 500,000, now that is about half.

The opening of Lelystad Airport has already been postponed four times. The previous cabinet has always postponed the decision to open the transfer airport, partly due to pressure from the House of Representatives from coalition partners D66 and ChristenUnie. The airport itself has been completed for a long time and has cost around €250 million. ‘Lelystad’ will be a difficult theme in the formation of a new left-wing cabinet, because GroenLinks and the PvdA are not in favor.

Nature permit

The status of the nature permit, which is still needed to open the doors at all, was not discussed on Sunday. “Lelystad will soon be used for holiday traffic, where Schiphol focuses on the transfer operation with international connections. This makes the distribution better,” says Benschop. In 2008, the decision was taken to develop Lelystad Airport as an overflow airport in order to relieve the burden on the residents of Schiphol. “Schiphol has seriously hindered 100,000 people, at Lelystad Airport there are 147,” said Benschop. Lelystad Airport will handle a maximum of 45,000 take-offs and landings.

From an operational point of view, a split operation is not efficient. The intention was that holiday traffic would be relocated one on one from the Haarlemmermeer, but the European Commission put a stop to that. There must be room for new entrants.

Higher standard

According to Benschop, Schiphol can develop further, despite the environmental and nuisance discussion. “The only perspective that is acceptable is to make big strides in sustainability. We can earn room for growth with innovation. Connecting the transition of aviation with the petrochemical industry.”

The government wants 14% of the kerosene fueled at Schiphol to be sustainable by 2030, where Europe is heading for 5%. Benschop repeated the norm of 14% on Sunday. The Schiphol CEO, himself a former State Secretary (PvdA) and former CEO of Shell Nederland, campaigned for this blending obligation with his party colleague, European Commissioner Frans Timmermans. It is unclear what will happen if the Dutch airlines price themselves out of the market because of the deviating Dutch standard. There is also a big question mark as to whether sufficient sustainable kerosene is available, because so far two factories in Rotterdam and Delfzijl are planned, where at least fifteen are needed. Moreover, all European airlines will soon have to join in, which will create an enormous demand.

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