Major airlines including KLM, Delta and EasyJet took the Dutch government to court in March over plans to cut flights from 500,000 to 460,000 a year in 2023-2024.
A judge at a district court ruled that the government "has not gone through the correct procedure" and had broken EU rules on consulting stakeholders including airlines.
"This means that as a result of this decision, Schiphol may not reduce the maximum number of flights to 460,000 for the coming season," the court in the city of Haarlem, near the airport, said in a statement.
But the court ruled that the Dutch government had followed the rules for a proposal to reduce flights to 440,000 a year by 2025, although they have not yet been finalised.
The court ruling comes a day after Schiphol said it was banning private jets and night flights and ditching plans for a new runway to reduce emissions and noise.
Dutch flag carrier KLM said the ruling brought "clarity".
"We would rather cooperate with the other parties than face them in court," KLM said in a statement.
The airline said the measures it had proposed offered a "better alternative for achieving less noise and CO2 while meeting travellers' need to fly."
Environmental group Greenpeace said it was "of course disappointed".
"Major polluter KLM is thus dealing a slap in the face to local residents, the climate and the government that saved the company from bankruptcy," it said.
KLM received a Dutch government bailout during the Covid pandemic when passenger numbers plummeted.
Schiphol airport is a major employer and economic force in the Netherlands, but its environmental impact is increasingly under scrutiny in a low-lying country vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
Amsterdam airport to ban private jets, night flights
The Hague (AFP) April 4, 2023 -
Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport said Tuesday that it would stop night flights and bar private jets in a bid to cut greenhouse gas emissions and noise pollution.
Aircraft will be banned from taking off between midnight and 6am and will not be allowed to land before 5am, Royal Schiphol Group chief executive Ruud Sondag said in a statement.
The changes at one of Europe's biggest air hubs are set to take effect from 2025-2026.
Currently flights are allowed to land or take off around the clock, though the numbers are limited.
"The only way forward is to become quieter and cleaner, faster," Sondag said in a statement. "For too long we have thought only about growth and too little about its toll."
The ban on night flights would bring "peace for the surrounding area", Schiphol said, after years of complaints about noise.
There would be 10,000 fewer night-time flights a year as a result, it said.
And private jets are being barred because they cause a "disproportionate amount of noise nuisance and CO2 emissions per passenger".
These amounted to about 20 times as many CO2 emissions as a scheduled flight, it said.
Dutch police in November arrested hundreds of climate activists after they stormed an apron at Schiphol, cycled around and then sat in front of private jets to prevent them from leaving.
The Netherlands said in June 2022 that it would cut flights at Schiphol to 440,000 annually by 2024, down from a pre-Covid level of 500,000, to stem noise pollution and emissions.
Top airlines including Dutch flag carrier KLM, Delta and EasyJet said in March that they were taking legal action against the Dutch government.
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