Planes at Brussels Airport cause strong annoyance to 220 000 residents. As a result, the cost of health damage would amount to more than 1 billion euros annually. This emerged from a new study by Bond Beter Leefmilieu (BBL), the Flemish federation for a better environment.

The study, carried out by study agency ENV-ISA at the request of BBL, shows that 220 000 people are severely hampered by aircraft noise every year and that the sleep of 109 000 residents is seriously disturbed. Over 50 000 people are at a greatly increased risk of developing hypertension, and 2 000 people are even at a greatly increased risk of heart disease.

According to the study agency, these health problems would cost society at least 1 billion euros annually. Per night flight, that means an average of 36 000 euros in health damage. BBL says this is still an underestimation, as it does not include costs for medication and hospitalization.

‘No commitment to sustainability’

“Brussels Airport Company claims to be heavily committed to sustainability and quality of life for local residents,” says Jasper Wouters of BBL. “In practice, they mainly invest in solar panel parks and electrifying ground traffic. But that does not lead to less aircraft noise at all. And the differentiated take-off and landing fees they levy – where loud aircraft have to pay more – have never been shown to be effective.”

The environmental organization, therefore, calls on Flemish environmental minister Zuhal Demir (N-VA) to include in the new environmental permit a binding agreement on low-noise and CO2-neutral operation.

New environmental permit

Brussels Airport’s environmental permit (MER) expires in mid-2024. The airport has already indicated that it wants to expand its operations. The new environmental permit will be submitted by 8 July at the latest.

The calculation assumes an evolution from 26 to 32 million passengers and 1 million tons of cargo flown in 2032 (compared to 776 000 tons in 2022), with a quasi-stable number of aircraft movements compared to 2019.

The capacity in terms of flight movements remains the same (74 movements per hour). In addition, the evolution of the fleet with more modern and quieter aircraft should lead to a reduction in noise impact.

The draft also shows that in some natural areas in the vicinity, nitrogen deposition would be increased, although road traffic, for example, also has a significant impact on this, as the airport is next to the E19.

Local opposition mayors

The citizen’s movement BurgerForum Luchthavenregio wants night flights at the Zaventem located Brussels Airport to be banned, or at least phased out.

Kurt Ryon (N-VA), mayor of the neighboring municipality of Steeenokkerzeel, does not envisage an expansion of flights. “There is indeed noise pollution at the moment, but you know that when you come to live here. We must learn to live together with the airport. But an additional expansion is not possible for us. We now also have to deal with the nuisance of grounded aircraft.”

According to the Noordrand, a consortium of five mayors of the Brussels northern edge municipalities, the growth that Brussels Airport wants to realize will also have an impact on the traffic around and the flight schedule of the airport. These ‘side effects’ would not have been mapped in the MER.

Completely indigestible for Noordrand is the assumption that the current operation of the airport, including the flight paths and day and night flight schedules, will remain unchanged. This will cause disproportionate inconvenience to the northern municipalities, while the eastern edge will experience less inconvenience.

The MER shows that the number of residents of the north edge municipalities who are disturbed in their sleep 10 to 20 times a night (now 41 817) is rising sharply, by 13%. In the east edge municipalities, there were still 19 327 residents in the same situation in 2019, but that number would be reduced to zero by 2032.

The federal Ombudsman then wants aerial LEZ at Brussels Airport.

Reform of quota count system

Since 1 April, new airport charges have been in place at Brussels Airport. Those charges are variable, as in the function of aircraft noise, their emissions, and the distance of flights.

In June, Mobility Minister Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo) also plans to put a proposal on the government table to reform the ‘quota count’ system, a score for each aircraft based on their noise level (there are also several lawsuits pending against the Belgian state for this).

The rules have not been updated for 14 years. “The objective is to tighten them and thus encourage airlines to use their less noisy aircraft to come to Brussels,” dixit the Minister.

This morning, the news came in that Schiphol Airport (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) is considering a ban on night flights (midnight to 5 am) in the near future.