Brussels Airport is an essential gateway to the world for citizens, businesses, and countless institutions. The airport is the second growth engine in Belgium, providing direct and indirect employment to 64,000 people and accounting for 2% of the GDP. Brussels Airport is also a vital logistics hub for the numerous exporting companies and industries established in Belgium, including the pharmaceutical industry, the manufacturing industry, perishables, trade…
The airport is heavily investing in making its operations more sustainable by attracting quieter aircraft through differentiated charges, working on more efficient flight procedures, entirely eliminating its own carbon emissions… The many initiatives taken have already led to a sharp reduction in nuisance. In the coming years, Brussels Airport Company will ambitiously continue to reduce the impact of airport operations, together with its partners in the industry.
Brussels Airport, therefore, regrets that the Belgian Federal Minister of Mobility Georges Gilkinet is now launching a far-reaching proposal with unprecedented negative consequences on employment, connectivity, exports and the economy in Belgium.
Minister of Mobility Gilkinet wants to ban night flights at Brussels Airport to reduce noise nuisance at and around Brussels Airport. On average, noise must be reduced by 20 percent, but the most striking proposal is that noise nuisance should be reduced to 0 percent between 23:00 and 06:00. Gilkinet says he wants to reduce noise nuisance for all residents and guarantee a sustainable economic future for the airport.
This proposal was done without any concertation with the airport or the aviation industry. Moreover, the European procedure to impose operating restrictions is also not respected at all. The airport, the aviation industry and local residents do not benefit from launching such drastic and unsupported proposals. They only give rise to uncertainty, anxiety and polarisation. They stand in the way of sustainable and balanced solutions in the interests of all stakeholders.
What the airport, the industry and the local residents really need is a global solution and a coherent legal framework that provides stability and legal certainty for the sustainable development of the airport, with respect for the environment. This can only be achieved in close consultation with the competent authorities, the airport, the airlines and the industry. That is exactly what Brussels Airport has been advocating for several years now and is more than willing to contribute to.
“What the airport, the industry and the local residents really need is a global solution”
With respect, I think local residents don’t really care about global solutions to Zaventem airport. What they really do care about is being woken up by 747 jet engines throttling up to full thrust past midnight every night.
Move zaventem airport to brustem, 40 km east of Brussels, rural area, ex army big airport, keep zaventem for diplomatic flights only.
@AJ: Perhaps those local residents should have thought of that before moving in to a cheaper property next to the national airport. If I buy a cheaper house underneath the church towers I don’t have to start whining about loud bells, either.
@GV There is no part of Brussels where the planes do not start and land above you when the wind is “right”. As convenient as Zaventem is for travelles, the asirport was put there in another time, when airflight was no mass phenomenon and airplanes were tiny.
At this time, we have about 7 flights per hour that land between 23.00 and 6.00 with an emphasis before 24.00 and after 4.00.
No night flights sounds like heaven.