report
Impacts of a night curfew at Schiphol
Background
Night flights at Schiphol Airport cause nuisance and sleep disturbance in the vicinity of the airport. This has a negative impact on the well-being, health, learning performance and productivity of local residents. A night curfew will counteract these impacts, but may adversely affect airlines, the airport, its users and employees. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (IenW) asked a consortium of To70, Beelining and Decisio to assess the positive and negative impacts of three different variants of a night curfew:
I. Full night curfew: no take-offs and landings between 23:00 – 7:00;
II. Partial night curfew: no take-offs between 0:00 – 6:00 and no landings between 0:00 – 5:00;
III. Partial night curfew: no take-offs and landings between 0:20 – 5:20. Unlike Variant II, flights operated in this period may be moved to the edges of the night.
Results
For each variant, the impacts on operations, local communities, airlines, airport, employees, users, safety and sustainability were assessed. In general, the impacts of a full night closure (variant I) are largest. A partial night closure (variants II and III) leads to significantly smaller impacts. Thereby, variants II and III show only minor differences. The main impacts are summarised below.
- Operations: Night flights that can no longer be operated due to the curfew will likely be moved to another time of day – as the airport’s total capacity remains unchanged. In particular, the edges of the day will become busier. The extra traffic during the day means that the non-preferred runways (in particular the Aalsmeer Runway and the Zwanenburg Runway) will be used more frequently;
- Local communities: With a full night curfew (variant I), the number of severely annoyed and sleep-disturbed people decreases by 23% and 100% respectively. With a partial night curfew (variants II and III), the number of severely annoyed people decreases by 3-4% and the number of sleep-disturbed people by 20-32%. The largest decreases are expected in the following regions: Haarlemmermeer, Amsterdam, Castricum and Teylingen. A point of attention here is that sleep disturbance may increase at the edges of the night;
- Airlines: A night curfew reduces the profitability of airlines operating night flights at Schiphol. On the one hand, they face higher costs due to lower productivity and less efficient operations. On the other hand, their revenues may fall because lucrative destinations can no longer be operated. The impacts vary from airline to airline, depending on the number of flights affected by the night curfew and their ability to move the flights in question to another time (during the day). Transavia – which currently operates most night flights at Schiphol – is hit hardest in all variants. A full night closure (variant I) will also affect KLM’s hub operation, as it will receive fewer transfer passengers to fill its morning flights. Express carriers – such as FedEx and DHL – may no longer be able to run their business model profitably at Schiphol under a full night curfew. With a partial night curfew (variants II and III), the impacts on KLM’s hub operation and on the express carriers are significantly smaller;
- Airport: Schiphol Airport may generate additional revenue from terminal concessions if it closes at night, as more people will depart and arrive during the day. On the other hand, revenues from parking and cargo hangar rental may fall. Labour costs likely decrease due to a positive impact on productivity and because less (costly) night labour is required;
- Employees: A night curfew makes working at Schiphol more attractive by reducing the need for employees to work night shifts and by making work schedules more predictable. There will be a limited reduction in employment due to a higher productivity and a decrease in cargo flights;
- Users: Passengers benefit from more attractive flight times and lower access costs with a night curfew. On the other hand, ticket prices and travel times may increase. The latter occurs when delayed aircraft are unable to depart or land due to the curfew. Shippers and forwarders face higher costs in the form of (slightly) higher freight rates and additional trucking costs;
- Safety: The workload for Air Traffic Controllers increases in the event of a night curfew, because the peaks during the day persist longer, more aircraft remain in holding areas and the diversion of delayed flights must be coordinated;
- Sustainability: Impacts on climate and local air quality are limited as the total number of flights does not change. There may be a very limited increase in emissions, as a night curfew will allow fewer gliding flights.
Methodology
The impacts on local communities were quantified by determining the number of homes, severely annoyed and severely sleep-disturbed people within the Lden and Lnight noise contours. The SCM tool, the dose-effect relationships for Schiphol from 2002 and a housing file from 2021 were used for this purpose. The impacts on airlines, the airport, its users and on safety were qualitatively assessed based on desk research, interviews and own expertise. The sustainability impacts were quantified using the Regulation Environmental Information Schiphol (RMI).
The impacts on the flight network were determined in a separate study – by PA Consulting. The network impacts appear to be greatest with a full night closure (variant I), as this affects most flights. An additional problem is that many of the late night flights (between 5:00 – 7:00) cannot be moved to an adjacent time in the morning due to capacity constraints. This is especially a problem for Transavia, which currently operates most night flights at Schiphol. In addition, a full night closure has negative consequences for Schiphol’s hub function, as KLM has fewer transfer passengers to fill the morning flights. Express carriers such as FedEx and DHL may no longer be able to run their business model profitably at Schiphol under a full night closure.

Colophon
Client: Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management
In cooperation with: To70, Decisio
Author(s): Desley Kemper, Rogier Lieshout, Sibren Vegter
Type: Research report
Date: January 2025
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