Eindhoven airport’s management announced that the airport will close for five months from February 2027. The runway needs to be renovated.
Stakeholders were recently informed of the plans. They will soon hold talks with the airport management.
A spokesperson informed that the travel company TUI, which makes extensive use of Eindhoven Airport, does not yet know how the closure is to be handled. “In the conversation with the management, we hope to hear how we can solve this in good consultation,” he said.
Travel umbrella ANVR assumes that thousands of flights will be rescheduled. This would mean that many travellers would have to divert to other airports.
Transavia has also been informed of the plans. The airline accounts for a third of the more than 40,000 flights at Eindhoven Airport every year. “Five months is a long period,” says a spokesperson. “So there is a lot of work to do.”
Concerned reactions
Earlier, Frank Oostdam of the travel umbrella organisation ANVR expressed his apprehension about the work. “Ten percent of holiday traffic in the Netherlands departs from this airport. My suggestion would be to divide the flights among the other airports. I realise that is easier said than done. But it cannot be that the problem falls on the travel industry’s plate.”
Nevertheless, according to aviation expert Joris Melkert of Delft University of Technology, the months-long closure is not an unnecessarily long period. “At Schiphol Airport, the runways also close for months for maintenance. The difference is that in Eindhoven you only have one runway.”
What will happen at Eindhoven Airport?
During the complete renovation of the runway, lighting, cabling, and drainage will also be renewed. At the same time, the Instrument Landing System (ILS) will be significantly improved, among other things.
The new ILS allows landing and take-off in very dense fog. The current version requires at least 550 metres of visibility for landings and 300 metres for take-offs. The new ILS comes with a hefty price tag of around ten million euros.
Source: Studio040
Translated by Chaitali Sengupta
