Open skies model for aviation is colliding with climate change

Management at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport should have been over the moon last week at news that the Dutch government was suspending plans for a substantial cut to flights from next summer on environmental grounds. The scheme was one of the most aggressive reductions to future growth faced by any airport in normal times; the government was proposing an 8% cut in capacity at the world’s third-busiest airport, in order to bring it into line with national laws on noise and pollution limits. But instead of celebrating with airlines, which had spent the past year challenging the plan in court, Schiphol’s interim CE Ruud Sondag worried that the victory would be shortlived. Speaking at the weekend just days before the national election, he warned that some parties were looking for far more drastic cuts. And, as local residents get “angrier and angrier…things could end up much worse for Schiphol and [we could] end up with far fewer flights”, he said. Sondag is right to be worried, and not just because of the ire of local residents. Dutch efforts to push ahead with the plan over the past year in the face of legal challenges have become a proxy for the debate over whether global aviation should continue to enjoy unfettered growth, even as its chances of achieving net zero emissions by 2050 recede. It may even herald a succession of trade rows as international aviation agreements collide with Europe’s environmental ambitions and national laws. The Netherlands plan was ill-advised from the start, seeking to fast-forward established procedures on noise reduction by introducing an “experimental law” alongside the usual EU oversight. To be fair, the government was under pressure from regulators, as for many years, Schiphol violated rules on noise and nitrogen levels. But in attempting to accelerate the procedures the Dutch opened the door to retaliation, from the US in particular.<br/>