From our own correspondent: Amsterdam's seventh runway

Richard — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 15:23:50 +0000

While activists and residents across West London gear up for the mother of all battles over Heathrow's third runway, across the Channel dutch environmentalists are trying to block Schiphol's seventh! In an arms race to rival the cold war, the three main airports - Heathrow, Schiphol and Frankfurt - are all competing to out-expand each other.

Schipol may have six runways, but it carries 32% less passenger traffic, making it the twelth biggest international airport. Unlike Heathrow, which got privatised a while back, Schiphol is still owned by the Dutch government. Of course, like all governments, the Dutch seem to think that climate change doesn't apply to airports, and are plans to make Schiphol twice as big.

The decision on expansion is being taken on the 27th of March (this Thursday) - coincidentally the same day T5 opens and we pop down and flash mob it. Rest assured that campaigners won't go down without a fight - activists from across the Netherlands have already been taking action, including a runway invasion back in 2006. Watch the skies...