A group of airlines, including KLM, Corendon, easyJet and tour operator TUI are taking the Dutch government to court on Tuesday to challenge its decision to cut flight movements at Schiphol airport.

The airlines say they are confident they can reduce noise levels and CO2 emissions ‘while maintaining a network of destinations for the millions of passengers and tonnes of cargo they carry annually to and from Schiphol’.

The government has said it will reduce Schiphol’s capacity from 500,000 to 460,000 aircraft movements a year from November and cut a further 20,000 in 2024. Schiphol, which is 100% state owned, has said it will accept the new limit this year and the next, but that it cannot rule out an expansion after that.

International aviation body IATA had also launched its own legal challenge, arguing there has been no ‘meaningful’ consultation with the organisations which will be affected and that flight reductions are being used as a first, not last resort. That case has now been folded into the KLM-led initiative.

The case is being heard by judges in Haarlem, and the verdicts will be announced in two weeks.