Pilots in the Netherlands who are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes are barred from flying after the Dutch government declined to take part in a Europe-wide safety trial.

Pilots’ union VNV has called on transport minister Barry Madlener to end what it calls an “unfair situation” by joining a scheme run in the UK, Ireland and Austria into how diabetic pilots can fly safely.

The previous cabinet declined to take part after the transport inspectorate said it would cost €220,000 a year to carry out the assessments. The then transport minister, Mark Harbers, said the cost and extra workload for inspectors were “considerable”.

But the VNV says Dutch pilots are being unfairly disadvantaged while their diabetic colleagues from other countries such as the UK, US and Canada, are allowed to take off and land from airports around the world, including Schiphol.

The Dutch medical journal Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde said two years ago that advances in insulin medication meant pilots with diabetes could safely fly under supervision. The Dutch diabetic association has also called for the rules to be reviewed.

The VNV has pointed out that KLM is facing a personnel shortage of 300 pilots in the long term, while large numbers of air traffic controllers are also nearing the end of their careers. It says 16 pilots and one air traffic controller could resume work if they were assessed.

The EU’s aviation safety agency EASA will evaluate the results of the British-led study and could order a change to European regulations if it is satisfied that diabetic pilots can fly safely. The Netherlands would be obliged to comply with any change in the rules, but this would not take effect until 2027 at the earliest.

Other transport workers such as train drivers, ships’ captains and lorry drivers are not barred from doing their jobs if they are diagnosed with diabetes.

The union is now pinning its hopes on Harbers’s successor, Barry Madlener, who has said the Dutch government is willing to take part in the study. But a spokesman for the ministry told NRC that “people and means are scarce, so we have to make choices.”