Brussels Airport has gained a new environment permit from the Flanders authorities. Located just outside the Belgian capital in Flemish Brabant, the Brussels Airport Company, which runs the airport, needed the new paperwork to secure its future beyond 8 July 2023 when its current permit runs out.
Balancing economic interests and quality of life
The new permit includes conditions to “ensure a balance between the economic interests of the airport and quality of life for those living nearby”, Environment Minister Zuhal Demir said, in a statement approving the permit on 29 March.
Setting out the number of aircraft movements allowed per year from 2032, the permit includes a margin for 13% growth from a base of 212,000 flights operated last year. This has attracted criticism from both sides of the argument around the number of flights at the airport.
In the press release, Demir highlighted the economic importance of the hub, calling Zaventem airport “a major growth engine in our country”. The airport would “remain so thanks to this environment permit,” she added.
Uncertainty about future growth?
Despite the allowance for a 13% increase in traffic to 240,000 flights, Voka, Flanders’ chamber of commerce and industry, suggested this does not go far enough and said the conditions of the permit raised unhelpful question marks over the airport’s future.
“In the short term, the continuity and development of the airport is still possible and current activities and jobs are safeguarded,” Voka said in a statement, but it added, “In the longer term, the ceiling on the number of flight movements creates uncertainty about the future growth of Brussels Airport.”
Quiet nights to be phased in
While allowing a 13% increase in movements by 2032, the permit nonetheless imposes a 30% reduction in the number of people suffering sleep disturbances due to night flights. To work towards this, “quiet nights” will be phased in at the airport, with restrictions from mid 2025 on the type of aircraft that can take off or land. The criteria will then be tightened in 2026, 2028 and 2030. Additional noise barriers must be installed within four years.
None of these conditions go far enough however to please the environmental lobby. Green organisation BBL had called for a cap of 220,000 flights per year at the airport. And the Department of Care and federal Mobility Minister Georges Gilkinet together have advocated for slashing the number of night flights in particular, to address the problem of sleep deprivation in districts around the airport.
Critics point out the plan to reduce night-time noise also falls two years short of the goal set by the European Commission’s zero pollution action plan, which targets 30 per cent reduction in night flights by 2030.
