Is Rotterdam full

[Humberside]

Thought I read somewhere Rotterdam airport is full. Is this true and if so why. It doesnt have that many flights

[LJ]

Thought I read somewhere Rotterdam airport is full. Is this true and if so why. It doesnt have that many flights

Yes it's full. Every available slot for the summer season has been given away and no extra flight is possible

[Humberside]

Is there some restriction on the number of flights that can operate at RTM?

[A318]

Thought I read somewhere Rotterdam airport is full. Is this true and if so why. It doesnt have that many flights

Yes it's full. Every available slot for the summer season has been given away and no extra flight is possible

Not correct, keep your eyes on VLM coming months

Greetz,

Erwin

[B744skipper]

Does anyone knows if Rotterdam Zestienhoven still has room to expand? Maybe with a higher use of the runway, or adding an extra runway?

Why do I have the feeling that the environment issue will pop up regarding Rotterdam Zestienhoven Airport.

[Squalo]

Time to shove all the nimbys on a rocket to mars then they will have lots of free land and nobody to complain about, Besides the departing rocket of course

[Rotterdamspotter]

Well, technically spoken Rotterdam isn't full at all, actually most of the time the place is near to deserted with the apron completely empty most times of the day. Politically spoken however the airport is more than 'full' with no slots being available to anyone. Reason is that the previous citycouncil (in Dutch 'Gemeenteraad'), predominantly controlled the the left-wing Dutch Labour party (Party van de Arbeid), managed to curtail the airport into a maximum 'noise-quotum' (in Dutch geluidsruimte) that was set much lower than the airport needed at that time, let alone in the future to cater for any expansion. In order to have a legal means to keep airlines out of the airport (in other words to forbid them to land or take-off at Rotterdam), the Rotterdam Airport Authorities voluntary asked the Dutch Government to be designated as a slot-coordinated airport which was implemented on April 1st, 2004. Since the slot-year runs 01nov-31oct the airport could use the whole 12 month quotum of slots during the S04 season so every flight was accepted. However from 01nov04 the sitution changed dramatically as the same amount of slots now had to be distributed over 12 months instead of only 6 months. Consequently the airport found out that existing flights (with historical rights which cannot be taken away) already exceeded the yearly quotum. Therefore an immediate ban was placed on ALL new traffic (charters, scheduled flights, cargo flights, just almost anything) and as things stand now it seems to be that such ban will be indefinitely. According to reliable sources the airport has already refused over 7.000 flights since 01nov04 and every month more flights are added to that total. The only flights not requiring slots are executive flights which go the the KLM Jet Center and Government Flights (which now use Rotterdam after Valkenburg navalbase closed on 01jan05) but their noise also has to be deducted from the existing quotum. The same applies to diverted flights (which cannot legally be refused access but the noise 'eats' into the already very limited 'noise-space'. All-in-all not a very gloomy picture and charter-brokers and airlines (who used the airport for their niche flights for decades) are very hard hit with little or no alternative being available (SPL too crowded and inflexible plus no slots avaialbe at peaktimes, EIN also no more slots, GRQ too far away and runway too short, MST too far away). It's a sad story especially for many of the loyal staff who are gradually starting to loose their jobs because of all the limitations.

[Prometheus]

well that is a sad story. Shame to hear that. I think all airports should be allowed more traffic than they seem to be allowed 8O

Great for the economy. Whats a bit of noise? I live under the flight path for EGCC, now thats a busy airport. Noise? what noise?

I think they exagerate the noise levels a "bit" too much.

[B744skipper]

well that is a sad story. Shame to hear that. I think all airports should be allowed more traffic than they seem to be allowed

Yes, but since the majority of the people that seem to lack common sense vote for so-called "social parties", those gain power and unfortunately can implement their naive and short-term thinking onto us. But those :censored: do not give a damned about the economic impacts it has, thus resulting in the different effects that Rotterdamspotter writes (ban on profitable Cargo and charter flights, rejecting thousands of aircraft movements and the loss of jobs). But to make matters worse, there are no restrictions on government flights.

What’s a bit of noise? I live under the flight path for EGCC, now that’s a busy airport. Noise? What noise?

I think they exaggerate the noise levels a "bit" too much.

I agree totally with you, and when the people can't stand the noise, they are free to move to eastern Siberia where there is probably not that much noise at all. But do not make your problem someone else's problem.

Btw, in the 60's Schiphol issued a series of warnings to neighboring towns not to build houses under the flight paths of runways, but why should those ignorant civil servants and politicians have cared. Nowadays Schiphol needs to carry the burden because of the negligence on the part of others.

[Humberside]

Thanks for clearing everything up Rotterdamspotter. Seems like a very sad situation

[LJ]

Rotterdam is open again for ad hoc flights after Transavia decided to move certain flights to AMS. As Transavia still holds historic rights for the winter season, the airport won't allow a new scheduled flights of other operators (Transavia may decide to use their rights during next winter schedule)