SCHIPHOLAIRPORT

Main airport of the Netherlands and one of the biggest in Europe, located in the Haarlemmermeerpolder near Amster dam since World War I. The name “Sc[h]iphol” goes back to a 1447 document. KLMhad its first flight from Schiphol in 1920 (to London). The Nazis bombed the airfield in 1940, which was restored after the war and afterward relocated farther to the southwest. Since the 1970s, Schiphol has been developed as a “city,” with a huge infrastructure, a partly underground railway station, and many shopping facilities. De spite all kinds of measures, noise pollution remains a politically touchy subject. In 2003, a fifth long runway was opened, but did not decrease the noise problem as expected. Privatization of Schiphol started in 2006, after long debate, but was cancelled again by the new government in 2007.

See also BIJLMER DISASTER.