Moves to curb emissions and noise pollution at Schiphol began last year when the Dutch government \u2014 the majority owner of the Royal Schiphol Group \u2014 proposed cutting the airport’s annual flights to 440,000 by 2024 from the current 500,000.<\/p>\n
The government later suggested a 460,000-flight cap as an intermediary step, but airlines challenged the restrictions in court. On 5 April 2023, a judge ruled in their favour, saying the government had not followed the correct procedure.<\/p>\n
One day before that ruling, Schiphol announced a swathe of additional measures, including the 2026 ban on night flights and private jets. The airport noted that some 17,000 private jet flights crossed its runways last year, causing a disproportionate amount of noise and generating 20 times more carbon dioxide emissions per passenger than commercial flights.<\/p>\n
Around 30% to 50% of private jet flights from Schiphol are to holiday spots like Ibiza, Cannes and Innsbruck, the airport said \u2014 all destinations are also served by commercial flights.<\/p>\n
“This statement was really out of the blue; we didn’t expect it,” said Michael van Hooff, owner of Amsterdam-based Orange Jets, a private jet charter broker that operated 600 flights from Schiphol Airport last year.<\/p>\n
Small aviation companies stress that private jets are an essential business tool. With a round-trip price tag of \u20ac15,000 to \u20ac25,000, depending on destination, entrepreneurs can, in Schiphol’s case, connect to a key European hub that is less than a half-hour drive from Amsterdam’s business district.<\/p>\n
“It is mostly a business destination,” said Eymeric Segard, CEO of Geneva-based private jet charter broker LunaJets, juxtaposing Schiphol against expensive tourist locales such as Nice or Cannes. Segard said C-suite executives, board members and entrepreneurs mainly take private jets into the city to stay flexible and discreet and to maximize work hours.<\/p>\n
Critics of Schiphol’s plan also argue that banning private jets at one airport doesn’t make sense, as many flyers will choose a different one. While Schiphol is the Netherlands’ main airport for business aviation, private jets also operate out of Lelystad, Rotterdam The Hague and Eindhoven airports.<\/p>\n Rotterdam The Hague Airport, which Royal Schiphol Group also owns, quickly clarified that it could not take on flights from the Amsterdam hub. A Schiphol Group spokesperson said the company doesn’t intend to transfer all traffic to one of its other airports. Instead, it proposes greater use of commercial flights and other European business destinations.<\/p>\n Toby Edwards, co-CEO of London-based private jet charter broker Victor, acknowledged a broader regional movement to opt for trains over planes where possible but said Schiphol could also have taken a different approach.<\/p>\n Last year, Victor partnered with oil company Neste Oyj to reduce private jet charter emissions by increasing sustainable aviation fuel use. Edwards said 20% of its customers choose to pay an extra \u20ac1,000 to use SAF when flying.<\/p>\n “There is equally a cohort of flyers that would like to fly sustainably,” he said. “Right now, if you have to fly, the best way to do that is to buy sustainable aviation fuel.”<\/p>\n Because private jets are smaller than commercial aircraft and have wealthier users, they are a logical testbed for innovations like battery power and SAF, which is derived from ingredients such as waste oils, fats and sugar crops.<\/p>\n Small-scale adoption can send a clear demand signal that helps these markets grow, and some climate groups and politicians have called for policies that would ban private jets from shorter routes unless they use green hydrogen or electricity.<\/p>\n For now, though, few such technologies are ready for primetime: There is a limited supply of SAF, for example, which doesn’t address aviation’s impact on air quality or noise pollution.<\/p>\n Elite emissions<\/strong><\/p>\n While private flights account for just 4% of global carbon emissions from aviation, it’s the unfairness that rankles. The richer half of the world is responsible for 90% of air travel emissions, according to a 2019 study, and a private jet emits up to 2 metric tons of CO2 during a single hour of flight.<\/p>\n (A typical car emits roughly 4.6 metric tons of CO2 per year.) As one viral tweet said, “Kylie Jenner is out here taking 3-minute flights with her private jet, but I’m the one who has to use paper straws.”<\/p>\n Private aviation is also on the rise. According to a report published by the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington, DC-based think tank, the number of private jets globally more than doubled over the past two decades.<\/p>\n The report cited a record 5.3 million private flights last year and a 23% increase in emissions from private jets since the start of the pandemic.<\/p>\n In Europe, the number of flights increased 64% last year, leading to almost doubling CO2 emissions, according to a separate study conducted by Dutch environmental consultancy CE Delft and commissioned by Greenpeace.<\/p>\n Last year, French Transport Minister Cl\u00e9ment Beaune said the country was considering a tax on private flights or using other means to get companies and wealthy individuals to limit their use.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/private-jets-destinations.png\")
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