report
Monitoring impacts of Balanced Approach measures for Schiphol
Background
The number of people severely affected by noise and the number of homes in the vicinity of Schiphol must be reduced by 15% by 1 November 2025 (in addition to the expected reduction due to autonomous developments), both at night and over a 24-hour period. The Dutch government defined a package of measures to achieve this noise target through a Balanced Approach procedure. For each measure the expected noise impact was estimated.
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (IenW) has asked To70 and Beelining to monitor whether the expected impacts are actually being achieved in practice. To this end, the impacts are being assessed for a full year starting from November 1, 2025. The reason for looking at a full year is that the measures may not yet have reached their full potential by November 1, 2025, and that the impacts may differ between the summer and winter seasons. The impacts will be determined at three points in time: as of November 2025, as of April 2026, and as of November 2026. The first two measurement points are based (partly) on forecasts, as not all realization data will be available at that time. By the third measurement point, this will be the case, and the effects can be definitively determined.
Results
The impacts found at the three measurement points are summarized below:
- Measurement point 1 (November 2025): The noise targets for the night were comfortably met in measurement point 1, but the noise targets for the entire 24-hour period are not. The measure airport charges differentiation had a greater impact than previously thought, because airlines deployed more quiet aircraft. However, the measures relating to additional fleet renewal, KLM’s night-time optimisation and the ban on noisy aircraft at night had a smaller impact than expected. This can be explained, respectively, by the delayed fleet renewal at KLM and Transavia, a limited exchange of quiet KLM aircraft between day and night, and the fact that fewer noisy aircraft were removed from night operations. When accounting is given for the delayed delivery of new aircraft that will eventually enter service during the year, noise reduction does increase further, but the targets are still not fully achieved. As noted above, the impacts at measurement point 1 are partly based on forecasts. In addition, the effect of the measure airport charges differentiation has likely been underestimated due to missing information regarding the newest aircraft types. This information will be available at measurement point 2;
- Measurement point 2 (April 2026): The second measurement point confirms that the noise targets for the night are being met by a wide margin. Additionally, the noise target for seriously affected residents within the 48 Lden contour is now also being met. Only the noise target for the number of homes within the 58 Lden contour is not yet being met. The causes are the same as those already identified at measurement point 1: the measures of additional fleet renewal, KLM night optimization, and banning noisy aircraft had less effect than expected. The relevant noise target is also not met even when taking into account the delayed delivery of new aircraft during the year and the deployment of quieter aircraft by a partner airline of KLM. The impacts in measurement point 2 are partly still based on forecasts, but less so than in measurement point 1. The impacts are – in contrast to measurement point 1 – no longer underestimated, because information regarding the newest aircraft types could be included in measurement point 2;
- Measurement point 3 (November 2026): The impacts for the third measurement point are not yet known.
Methodology
The impacts of the measures are determined by comparing the number of people and homes seriously affected by aircraft noise in the situation without the measures (the baseline) with the situation with the measures. For the sake of consistency, the same baseline is used as in the Balanced Approach procedure. The changes in traffic that have occurred after the measures came into effect and can be attributed to the measures are then projected onto the baseline to obtain the situation with the measures. More information about the methodology can be found in the Action Plan.
Colophon
Client: Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management
In cooperation with: To70
Type: Research report
Date: May 2025 – present
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