When airport authorities began contemplating a fifth runway for Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, the 747 was still a year away from rollout, the Beatles were putting the finishing touches on "Sgt. Pepper" and Lyndon Johnson had high hopes of winning a second term in the White House. "I prefer not to look back, but forward," commented Schiphol Group President Gerlach Cerfontaine during ceremonies marking inauguration of the runway on Feb. 20, some three-and-a-half decades after planning started, eight years after the Dutch government finally gave the go-ahead and 37 months after ground was broken. By most metrics, Schiphol is Europe's fourth-largest airport after Paris Charles de Gaulle, London Heathrow ari'd Frankfurt, and the new runway will "allow it "to absorb air traffic growth and continue to compete with other major European airports," Cerfontaine declared at the opening. With a length of 3,800 m, 18R/36L, or Polder as it has been christened―all of the airport's runways are named―is Schiphol's longest and its width of 60 m., or 75 m. including shoulders, means that it will be able to accommodate the A380. It is also the most expensive, built at a cost of EUD320 million ($345 million).
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