So the brains charged with solving the limits to growth at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport have come up with the blindingly simple solution – shift the noise problem elsewhere.

Lelystad and Eindhoven airports are perfectly poised to deal with all that irritating charter and budget traffic, according to a leaked report in the Volkskrant.
And indeed they are. Holiday-makers with their cheap tickets can hardly complain about being shunted off to the wilds of Flevoland for their 4am flights to Malaga.
And people living in Lelystad and Eindhoven can only be pleased about having such handy airports on their doorsteps – presuming they don’t live under the flight path that is.
So once those objections are taken care of, Schiphol can concentrate on prestige intercontinental flights and the remaining European flag carriers.
Those transit passengers – and they currently account for 40% of all traffic at Schiphol – will have plenty of time to do a bit of upmarket See Buy Fly shopping and visit the mini Rijksmuseum while waiting for their connecting flight.
And what about all those people coming to Amsterdam for a weekend break?
Doubtless the ingenuity of the budget airlines will see them landing at Amsterdam-Lelystad or Amsterdam-Eindhoven airport… just a short train ride from the city centre, with its historic canals and cosy cafés…