Brussels Airport receives favorable advice, but must limit the number of flights

Airport

Brussels Airport’s permit application receives a favorable opinion, but there are restrictions on the number of (night) flights. As far as nitrogen is concerned, there appear to be no obstacles.

The application for an environmental permit from Brussels Airport, Zaventem airport, has received a favorable advice from the regional environmental permit committee. This advice is the basis on which the Flemish government normally makes a decision by the end of March.

The committee does attach strict conditions to the advice. The total number of annual flight movements would be limited to a maximum of 234,000 from 2030. This ceiling is lower than the 240,000 flights that the airport itself was aiming for by 2032. Brussels Airport Company wanted to achieve this with larger, more modern aircraft. Last year there were more than 192,000 flight movements at Brussels Airport, but in 2000 there were 326,000.

The advice also calls for making weekend nights quieter. For example, from 2026, aircraft would no longer be allowed to land or depart between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. on the nights of Friday to Saturday, Saturday to Sunday and Sunday to Monday. From 2030, this would become from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.

There was a fear that nitrogen in particular was in danger of becoming an obstacle to the development of Zaventem. But in that respect, Flemish Minister of the Environment Zuhal Demir (N-VA) notes that the application, according to the advice, “complies with the nitrogen framework and is sufficiently detailed”.

The airport contributes to the precipitation of nitrogen in neighboring nature reserves, such as the Floordambos in Steenokkerzeel. The environmental impact report that the airport operator had drawn up already stated that emissions would remain below the threshold values ​​of the nitrogen decree.

Treyntak

The advice also mentions an intervention in the so-called Diabolo tax, the extra amount that train passengers who use the Diabolo tunnel under the airport have to pay. The committee proposes that the airport operator Brussels Airport Company pay 10 million euros every year to rail network operator Infrabel, so that it can reduce the surcharge.

In her response, Minister Demir says that this advice is an initiative “to find a balance between economic activity and the impact on the environment and local residents”.