Amsterdam Schiphol: The most sustainable airport hub of Europe?”

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2020-08-14
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en
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The Dutch aviation sector is dealing with a ‘conflict’. The sector wants to growth, resulting into a hub function under pressure while the sector also wants to become more sustainable. However, finding a suitable balance between both goals is difficult. The aim of the research is to evaluate the policies established by the three main actors (Dutch Government, Royal Schiphol Group and KLM Group), focussing on Amsterdam Schiphol’s hub function and sustainability, since the establishment of the Aviation Policy Note 2009. The research focuses on policies related to Amsterdam Schiphol’s hub function and sustainability. This will contribute to answer the main research question: “Evaluating the current policies on regional and national level, which lessons can be learned for new policies to enhance the sustainability of the Amsterdam Schiphol as well as to strengthen the hub function of Amsterdam Schiphol?” The policies of the three main actors has been analysed to see which policies has been established to enhance the sustainability of Dutch aviation sector, and especially Amsterdam Schiphol, as well as to strengthen Amsterdam Schiphol’s hub function and if they were successful? In this research, the combination between multi-level governance and policy evaluation has been made. The three main actors were selected by doing a multi-level governance analyse combined with using the power, legitimacy and urgent criteria defined by Mitchell et al (1997). The relevant policies of those main actor were evaluated by using the policy evaluation theory. The results have shown that it is still difficult to establish suitable policies which provide a balanced way to gain the economic benefits as well to reduce the environmental impacts of air travel as much as possible. The new Aviation Policy Note already provides tools, but collaboration between different stakeholders is essential. The main actors work already together, but more and large collaborations on multiple levels could result in better policies and actions to achieve the common goals. Next to starting/extending collaborations, the sector needs to focus, as a collaboration, to achieve three important steps to achieve a big step forward into the reduction of a large part of the total production of emissions. Those actions are: • Applying alternative transport modalities to reduce the large amount of (ultra-)short-haul flights. • Applying biofuel instead of fossil fuels. • Reducing emissions caused during the LTO-cycle. Applying those three actions could also result into possible benefits for Amsterdam Schiphol’s hub function. Replacing flights could result into free slots for hub-related flights, which strengthen the hub function. Meanwhile, reducing CO2-emissions and the future development of even quieter aircraft could result in additional yearly air traffic movements. In other words, a balance in establishing appropriate policies for strengthening Amsterdam Schiphol’s hub function and enhance the sustainability of the aviation sector can be created, resulting in Amsterdam Schiphol as the most sustainable airport hub of Europe!
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen