The Dutch government has decided to postpone the opening of Lelystad airport to commercial traffic by at least a year from the tentatively scheduled date of April 1, 2019, due to the need for further noise and environmental impact analyses, Airports of the World has reported.
The Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management Cora van Nieuwenhuizen has announced that new analyses are necessary as earlier assessments might have been erroneous and incomplete. Some of the residents of the reclaimed polder Flevoland, on which the airport is located, have long been protesting against the expansion of Lelystad.
In January 2017, the Dutch Council of State approved the development of the airport after a complaint filed by some of the local groups.
The plans to expand the airport, managed by the Royal Schiphol Group which also operates Amsterdam Schiphol and Rotterdam airports and owns a 51% majority stake in Eindhoven airport, were announced in 2015. Lelystad is intended to become a secondary facility serving the Amsterdam agglomeration. It plans to take over some of the leisure and possibly low-cost traffic from the main airport, which is already reaching the limit of daily movements due to noise regulations.
Lelystad is located some 50 kilometres to the east from Amsterdam airport.
Corendon Dutch Airlines and TUI fly (Netherlands) have expressed their interest to operate out of Lelystad once the airport's terminal infrastructure is appropriately expanded. Transavia Airlines and Ryanair have also weighed up their options in regard to the new airport.
Lelystad director Hanne Buis has said in a statement that despite the minister's decision, the airport will be technically ready to serve scheduled traffic on April 1, 2019, as previously planned.
