Barry Madlener, the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management, has shared his plans for a new design of Dutch airspace in a letter to the House of Representatives. You can read about what these plans look like and what it all means in this article.
Just like vehicles on roads and railways, airspace also has fixed routes that aircraft follow. The government is working on rearranging this ‘road map in the sky’ at altitudes of 1,800 metres and higher. The aim is to create more space for defence and to reduce noise nuisance and emissions around civilian airports.
The minister has now shared his plans in a letter to the House of Representatives. These include a halt to the arrival of a new approach route, the so-called ‘fourth route’ that has been much in the news recently. According to the minister, it would not be possible to link it to international routes.
There is also a big change ahead for defence. The training area in the southeast of the Netherlands will be dropped but the training area in the north of the country will be expanded. This will allow for proper training with the latest generation of fighter aircraft, the F-35. To ensure that no civilian aircraft fly through the training area, traffic flows in the east of the Netherlands will shift south.
The so-called ‘Higher Approach’ is also part of the airspace redesign. This involves aircraft approaching the airport with a continuous descent and less engine power. This is how the minister wants to reduce noise nuisance. We will start a programme at Schiphol this year to gain more experience in this.
It's good to be aware that, for now, this is a draft plan. It's a first step that's being worked out in more detail. An external committee will be set up to assess the precision, usefulness and necessity of the airspace revision. Local residents and other stakeholders will also be given the chance to have their say in the coming period. A preliminary design must then go to the Lower House in 2026, after which the airspace redesign will be introduced between 2028 and 2030.
If you're curious about what's in the letter to the House of Representative, you can read it here (in Dutch).