The Dutch Government has decided to open Lelystad Airport to commercial flights after over a decade of discussions, with the announcement made in the ‘Aan de slag’ agreement released by the coalition.
History
The airport first opened in 1973, and became part of the Royal Schiphol Group in 1993, with the intention of being an overflow site for Schiphol Airport. This was part of the Alders Agreement in October 2008, which stated that Schiphol must not host more than 500,000 air transport movements before 1 November 2020. In line with passenger traffic, this meant that 70,000 flight services needed to be moved to Lelystad and Eindhoven, and for Lelystad this required development from a regional airfield into a site that could handle commercial air traffic.
The development plans commenced in 2015 and concluded in 2018, including extending and winding the runways and lengthening the air traffic control (ATC) tower, in addition to terminal updates. However, from 2018, Lelystad’s opening was delayed due to an Environmental Impact Assessment that outline the need for an air space redistribution, and also capped the airport’s number of movements at 45,000 a year. The opening was postponed yet again in 2020, until now.
Reception
The news has been welcomed by many stakeholders, including Royal Schiphol Group, stating that by opening Lelystad Airport, the government is taking steps to future-proof aviation in the Netherlands. Pieter van Oord, CEO of the Group, highlighted that the coalition’s goal to reduce aviation noise by 50% at night in Schiphol is good news.
van Oord added: “With this coalition agreement, aviation is increasingly being approached as a single coherent system that contributes to the broad prosperity and resilience of the Netherlands. The parties forming the coalition are taking into account the balance between accessibility, the living environment, climate and the economic value of aviation.”
ACI Europe, the European airport trade body, also commented on the news, saying that the decision was a “necessary and strategic step in safeguarding the Netherlands’ connectivity, competitiveness, and regional development.”
Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI Europe, pointed to a recent report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) that identifies a 590 million passenger airport capacity gap across Europe by 2030, demonstrating that Europe as a whole is struggling to compete with other markets.
“There is no doubt whatsoever that allowing the use of Lelystad Airport will boost the Dutch economy and deliver significant socio-economic benefits at local and regional level,” said Jankovec. “With every 10% increase in air connectivity generating a 0.5% rise in GDP per capita and a 1.6% increase in employment, ensuring that airports can accommodate demand is a prerequisite for economic growth, cohesion and the fight against territorial inequality. […] At a time when our global competitors are expanding airport capacity and placing air connectivity at the heart of their economic and strategic development policies, Europe is facing an acute airport capacity crunch. We have simply failed to develop infrastructure in line with demand and have been squeezing the lemons for too long.”
Photo:
