More than 900 people have signed up for a new court case against Schiphol, accusing the airport of mishandling or failing to take due care of their health.

The complaint was handed over to the public prosecution department in Amsterdam on Wednesday, news website Nu.nl reported.

The state, along with KLM and Transavia, which are the “two biggest night noise makers,” is responsible for an attack on their health because “for years, people have been robbed of their sleep due to excessive noise nuisance,” the complainants say.

Lawyer Bénédicte Ficq, who is representing the locals, told AD last year that it will not be difficult to prove that the noise at night should be considered mistreatment. Mistreatment, she said, can be defined as “causing physical and psychological damage,” and this can result from serious and systematic sleep disruption.

“Being woken multiple times a night, never knowing when, is destructive to your health, your relationships, your children, and your concentration at work,” she told the paper. “It is a human right to be able to sleep at night and to recuperate.”

Earlier this month, the European Commission said it had no major objections to the cabinet’s plans to cut flights at Schiphol Airport from a maximum of 500,000 to 478,000 but noted that it had “identified some shortcomings” in the proposals.

Infrastructure minister Barry Madlener said that the number of take-offs and landings would be cut slightly at Schiphol in the coming years to help reduce noise nuisance.

From next year, the airport will be allowed to facilitate 478,000 take-offs and landings, down 4.4% from the current total of 500,000. This, combined with the introduction of quieter aircraft, will cut noise for locals by 15%, five percentage points below the 20% target, the minister said.

Other legal battles

Campaign groups have also taken the state to court in two other legal battles involving Schiphol noise and pollution rights.

Since 2019, companies that emit large amounts of nitrogen have been required to hold an operating permit detailing how much nitrogen they are allowed to discharge. Schiphol had been operating without a permit for years, and the government had turned a blind eye to the situation.

In 2023, Schiphol bought nine farms in order to use their nitrogen pollution rights as its own, and later that year, it was controversially given its own permit, allowing it to carry out 500,000 take-offs and landings a year.

But campaign groups say Schiphol was wrongly awarded the permit and are fighting it in court. They argue that Schiphol has failed to prove its emissions remain within the agreed limits and that the calculations that have been done are insufficient.