Schiphol aircraft noise: flight paths, runways and night flights

Six runways, used two or three at a time

Schiphol has six runways, and locals know them by name: the Polderbaan (18R/36L), the Kaagbaan (06/24), the Zwanenburgbaan (18C/36C), the Aalsmeerbaan (18L/36R), the Buitenveldertbaan (09/27) and the short Oostbaan (04/22). They are never all in use at once. Outside the busy periods there is one runway for landings and one for take-offs. During the peaks a second landing or take-off runway opens, and when a landing peak runs into a take-off peak there can briefly be four.

Which runways are used follows a preference list agreed with the surrounding area, and the Polderbaan and the Kaagbaan come first because their routes cross less densely populated land. Air traffic control (LVNL) picks the combination, but safety comes first: a runway is no longer offered as the main runway once the crosswind reaches 20 knots or the tailwind is over 7 knots, and low cloud, poor visibility, storms and maintenance all change the picture.

South flow and north flow

With the wind from the south, planes land towards the south on the Polderbaan and take off from the Kaagbaan. At peaks the Zwanenburgbaan adds a second landing runway, or the Aalsmeerbaan a second take-off runway. With the wind from the north it turns round: landings on the Kaagbaan and take-offs from the Polderbaan, with the Aalsmeerbaan for extra landings and the Zwanenburgbaan for extra take-offs.

Over the last year, Schiphol was mainly in south flow on 53% of days and in north flow on 28%. On the other 19% it switched during the day, and a switch usually means the Buitenveldertbaan is used for a while so the traffic streams can be turned round safely.

South flow dominates in autumn and winter: it was the main direction on three days in four in November. North flow is a spring and summer pattern: in July 2026 it was the main direction on 61% of days, against 5% in January. So a house under a north-flow route can have a quiet winter and a busy summer. You can replay any day on the flight map to see which way the airport was working.

Where landing planes fly

Landing planes line up with the runway well before they reach the airport and descend on a straight line, so the same streets hear them at the same height every time.

In south flow, most landings use the Polderbaan (18R): 81% over the year. Planes come in from the north past Uitgeest and Assendelft, where they are still only 1,450 to 2,050 ft up, then pass Spaarndam at about 1,100 ft and cross the polder west of Halfweg and Zwanenburg. At busy times the Zwanenburgbaan (18C) takes the rest. Its approach runs about 2 km further east, over Amsterdam's Westpoort port area, then Halfweg at about 1,050 ft and Zwanenburg at about 700 ft.

In north flow, the Kaagbaan (06) takes most landings, from the south-west: over Warmond 15 km out at about 2,550 ft, then Abbenes and the southern edge of Nieuw-Vennep at 1,100 to 1,800 ft, passing just south of Hoofddorp at the end. At peaks the Aalsmeerbaan (36R) adds a second stream from the south, over Nieuwkoop and Nieuwveen, then De Kwakel at about 1,100 ft and low over Aalsmeer.

In strong westerly winds, and while the airport switches between flows, planes land on the Buitenveldertbaan (27) from the east: over Amsterdam Zuidoost at 1,800 to 2,100 ft, then Amstelveen at around 1,100 ft or lower. In a south-westerly storm the Oostbaan can also take landings, which brings planes over central and south-west Amsterdam.

Where take-offs go

Take-offs climb much faster than landings descend, and they turn onto set routes soon after the runway, so they spread wider but higher.

In south flow, most take-offs leave from the Kaagbaan (24) towards the south-west. They are about 1,550 ft up 2 km past the runway and over 4,000 ft by 8 km. Nearly half carry on south-west past Nieuw-Vennep, and most of the rest turn south. At peaks the Aalsmeerbaan (18L) adds a second stream that crosses Aalsmeer at around 1,550 ft, most of it then turning south-east.

In north flow, take-offs leave from the Polderbaan (36L), with the Zwanenburgbaan (36C) added at peaks. Over half head straight north past Assendelft at around 3,350 ft, and about a quarter turn north-east over the western edge of Amsterdam at a similar height.

The difference in height is large. At 8 km from the runway, a landing plane is typically 1,400 to 1,450 ft up, while a take-off is at 3,550 to 4,100 ft.

Night flights and quiet hours

Schiphol has no curfew, but it has night rules. From 23:00 to 06:00 only one landing runway and one take-off runway may be used, and they are nearly always the Polderbaan and the Kaagbaan. Night landings follow fixed routes from a point over the North Sea or the IJsselmeer, mostly flown as a continuous descent with little engine power. The Aalsmeerbaan and the Oostbaan may not be used at night at all; the Zwanenburgbaan steps in when the Polderbaan or Kaagbaan is closed for maintenance or unusable in the weather. When traffic allows, the night set-up can start at 22:30 and last until 06:30.

On top of that, at most 27,000 flights a year may land or take off between 23:00 and 07:00. Since 1 November 2025 the noisiest older aircraft, those that beat the international noise limits by a cumulative margin of less than 13 EPNdB, have been banned in those hours.

Our recordings show 67 flights on an average night between 23:00 and 07:00, 5% of the day's traffic, and 118 on the busiest. The season makes a big difference: about 47 to 50 a night from November to March, and 84 to 88 from June to August. From November 2025 to April 2026 our count comes to about 9,300 night flights, close to the 9,355 the Inspectorate reported for that half-year.

Only a short part of the night is truly quiet. Between midnight and 05:00 there are just a few flights an hour, and on a typical night the longest stretch with no landing or take-off is about an hour and three-quarters. Traffic builds from 05:00, and the big jump comes at 07:00 with the first wave of the day: about 83 flights in that hour against 22 between 06:00 and 07:00.

Busy days and quiet days

Schiphol handled 477,552 commercial flights in 2025, about 1,310 a day. Our count from recorded flights comes to the same, about 1,310 a day. It varies with the season: 1,133 a day in January against 1,407 in August, and the busiest day of the year, 23 August 2026, had 1,474. Saturday is the quietest day of the week.

Within the day, traffic comes in waves, because Schiphol is a hub where arrivals and departures bunch together so that passengers can connect. The peaks handle over a hundred flights an hour, and that is when the second landing or take-off runway opens. It is why homes under the Zwanenburgbaan and the Aalsmeerbaan tend to hear planes in bursts rather than all day. For why your own street is busy on a given day, see why planes fly over your house.

Flight caps and new rules

The number of flights at Schiphol has been disputed for years, and the rules are changing:

• The cap. A fast-track change to the airport's traffic decree, the Luchthavenverkeerbesluit, capped Schiphol at 478,000 flights a year, 27,000 of them at night, from 1 November 2025. On 11 March 2026 the Council of State annulled it as not properly justified, but kept the 27,000 night limit in force until the full new decree takes effect. The yearly 478,000 is now applied through the government's instructions to the Inspectorate.
• The new decree. A full new decree was published in draft in January 2026. It keeps 478,000 flights and 27,000 at night, adds many more noise enforcement points around the airport, sets rules for runway use, and lets the Inspectorate step in during the year rather than only afterwards. It also sets out a phased return to 500,000 flights a year as noise comes down. The government plans for it to take effect on 1 November 2026.
• The noise target. The government's aim is 20% less noise overall, and noise room freed by quieter aircraft is to be shared equally between growth and residents.
• Uithoorn and Aalsmeer. In September 2026 the Inspectorate warned that two enforcement points near Uithoorn and Aalsmeer had used more than half of their yearly noise allowance by the middle of the year: the fourth year running in which the limit there threatened to be exceeded.

For how night limits like these compare with other airports, see night flight rules, curfews and quotas.

Complaints, insulation and help

To complain or ask a question, contact BAS, the Bewoners Aanspreekpunt Schiphol (residents' contact point), set up by Schiphol and LVNL in 2007. Report a disturbance online at bezoekbas.nl or in the BAS app, or call 020 601 55 55, every day from 09:00 to 17:00 except public holidays. BAS records and analyses every report and passes quarterly and yearly reports to Schiphol, LVNL, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management and the Maatschappelijke Raad Schiphol, which gives residents a voice in aviation policy. If you think a rule has been broken, you can also report it to the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT).

To check a flight, the BAS flight tracker, on its website and in the app, shows each plane's type, flight number, origin or destination and the runway it used.

For insulation, the government's Regeling gevelisolatie Schiphol pays for facade insulation of homes in the 60 dB Lden noise contour that were not insulated under earlier rounds. It costs the owner nothing, because airlines at Schiphol pay for it through a levy. Rijkswaterstaat writes to eligible owners and carries out the work, which takes two to four years from the first letter. The scheme was extended in July 2026 to about 150 more homes and runs until 31 December 2029. Our guide to airport insulation schemes explains how schemes like this work.

For compensation, residents near enforcement points where the noise limits were exceeded in the 2023, 2024 or 2025 operating years, including point 25 in Uithoorn, may be able to claim for lost enjoyment of their home. Applications are not open yet; the government expects to say more in autumn 2026 and will write to those who qualify.