The Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT) has fined four airlines because in 2022 they took off from or landed at Schiphol at night without having a slot allowing them to do so. Keep on reading to find out more.
Published on: 30 July 2024
To limit noise nuisance experienced by local residents, flights can only take off from and land at Schiphol between 23:00 and 07:00 if they have been allocated a night slot by the slot coordinator. Airlines may only deviate from this regulation in the event of force majeure. That could be, for instance, due to unforeseen weather conditions or a technical fault.
New policy rule
A new policy rule went into effect in November 2021 making it much more difficult for airlines to claim force majeure. Since then, the ILT can also impose fines for violating slot rules. This led to a significant increase in the number of violations in 2022. Incidentally, the ILT also notes that compliance with the rules has improved since 2023.
Eight fines
The ILT issued a total of eight fines in 2022 amounting to € 1,065,000. The bulk of the fines were given to easyJet. The airline received four fines for carrying out night flights during day slots and for other slot rule violations. In addition, British Airways, TUI Airlines and Vueling Airlines were also taken to task by the ILT.
Night curfew
Schiphol wants to reduce noise nuisance at night. We are therefore advocating a nighttime curfew as part of our 8-point plan, which was launched last year. You can read more about that here.