On holiday by plane? You’re not the only one. In 2020, almost 23.6 million passengers flew through Dutch airports. These air journeys – however short or long they may be – have an impact on the environment. Are you curious about the damage that flying causes to the environment?
In this blog you can read about the relationship between air traffic and pollution. We end with the answer to the question: what damage does flying cause to the environment?
Dutch Air Traffic
Although the Netherlands is a small country of 4.2 million hectares , commercial aviation is widely used. There are five different airports in the Netherlands. These are Schiphol Airport, Eindhoven Airport, Groningen-Eelde Airport, Maastricht Aachen Airport and Rotterdam – The Hague Airport. 88% of air traffic in the Netherlands takes place at Schiphol.
In 2020, the total number of air transport movements in the Netherlands was set at 236,154 . This number refers to the number of overland movements. An overland move is a flight where the takeoff and landing of that flight do not take place at the same aerodrome. An example of this is an airplane that takes off at Schiphol Airport and lands at Barcelona Airport.
Thanks to the rapid growth of air traffic, airports have been built all over the world. The number currently stands at 44,000 airports worldwide. This concerns both very large and very small airports. The largest airport is Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport in the United States. 110,531,300 passengers fly annually from this airport.
What damage does flying cause to the environment if air traffic continues to increase?
Aviation continues to grow despite being one of the most polluting modes of transport. Schiphol is one of the busiest airports in Europe. As a result, the Netherlands has to deal with noise pollution, air pollution and high emissions of various greenhouse gases.
An airplane flies on a fossil fuel called kerosene. The combustion of kerosene releases greenhouse gases. A well-known greenhouse gas is CO2.
When these mentioned greenhouse gases are released into the air, the Earth’s temperature rises. The result is a change in the climate, a rise in the sea level and the disappearance of plants or animals.
Air traffic targets
Are you curious about the answer to the question what damage does flying cause to the environment? Not only is the earth warming faster due to the release of harmful greenhouse gases, air travel also contributes to several other ways of climate change such as other ways of climate change including nitrogen emissions, cloud formation and condensation trails.
At the moment, aviation does not comply with the Dutch Climate Agreement. The sector has therefore drawn up its own plan; Smart and Sustainable . This is our own plan in which the objectives are taken directly from the Aviation Memorandum. An example of such a target is that by 2070 there will be no more CO2 emissions from the aviation sector.
If we want to achieve the Paris agreements to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees, aviation must change. One solution would be to replace short flights by plane with a train journey. It is estimated that this will mean 60,000 fewer flights!
Do you want to plan a short holiday trip by plane? Then think of the question “What damage does flying do to the environment?” Try a train trip through Europe or go sustainable travel in your own country !
