In November 2023, the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management (I&W) announced the suspension of the so-called experimental scheme. This has implications for the capacity at Schiphol. On 21 December 2023, we published a so-called addendum — an addition to the capacity declaration that determines the final capacity for 483,000 flights in 2024.
Published on: 22 December 2023
The capacity for the 2024 summer season had already been set based on the maximum 460,000 flight movements in the experimental scheme. Since the minister suspended it, we have spent the past few weeks working with partners such as Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (LVNL), the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, Customs and the airlines to determine what can still be executed in an operationally responsible way. In doing so, we had to consider the capacity of our partners.
Total of 483,000 flights
In the end, consultations determined that there is room for a total of 483,000 flights in 2024. That means 293,000 flights will be available for the summer season (which runs from 31 March to 26 October).
This does come with conditions. It became clear during the conversations that the peak in the morning, when many large aircraft carrying many passengers arrive at the same time, could lead to problems in the entire airport process. And that could potentially lead to long queues. As a condition, the capacity in the morning peak has been reduced from 68 to 65 arrivals per hour.
Based on this capacity, the independent slot coordinator will discuss with airlines how flights in the peaks can be reduced. Capacity for the winter season (27 October 2024 to 30 March 2025) will be decided later in 2024.