Dutch Govt Caps AMS Flights For Sustainability – A Sign Of Things To Come? A common claim by climate change activists is that technological innovation and increased use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) won’t be enough to get to net zero. They say that the only way to curb carbon emissions from aviation is to suppress demand and cap flights. Indeed, as we showed in a recent sustainability newsletter, for some it goes as far as wanting airline advertising treated in the same way as tobacco or alcohol advertising, with appropriate warnings. Now in a possible sign of things to come, the Dutch Government has decided to cap flights from Amsterdam Schiphol for noise and environmental reasons, in particular NOx emissions – nitrogen oxides. According to the Queensland Govt (Australia), “elevated levels of nitrogen dioxide can cause damage to the human respiratory tract and increase a person’s vulnerability to, and the severity of, respiratory infections and asthma. Long-term exposure to high levels of nitrogen dioxide can cause chronic lung disease.” As a result, flights to and from AMS will be limited to 440,000 a year from November 2023, 11% below the level of 2019 and 20% under the capacity set by the previous government.
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AMM - July 2022
