According to the website Dutch News, Iata and a group of airlines including KLM, KLM Cityhopper, Martinair, Transavia – all part of the Air France-KLM group – and Corendon, Delta Air Lines, easyJet and TUI intend to launch a legal battle against the Dutch government, which decided to further reduce traffic at Schiphol Airport.
According to this measure, the limit set at 500,000 flights per year will indeed be lowered to 460,000 flights from November 2023, to then drop again and reach 440,000 flights in 2024.
The airlines claim that in addition to breaching national, European and international legislation, the decision is unnecessary, harmful and lacks adequate justification, given that the airline industry is already achieving significant results in reducing CO2 emissions and noise levels.
For its part, Iata believes that this political decision by the Dutch government contravenes EU Regulation 598/2014 on operational noise restrictions at EU airports and also ignores the Chicago Convention, an agreement binding international agreement to which the Netherlands is a signatory, which provides, after discussion with the stakeholders, for the reduction of flights as a last resort to limit pollution. Which, according to Iata, was not done.
