12.11.2023 – Expanding Brussels Airport? These residents are opposed to the project and are calling for three measures to protect their well-being

Nearly 600 people took part in a march in Zaventem on Sunday to protest against the expansion of the national airport located on the territory of this Flemish municipality, a stone’s throw from Brussels.

On Sunday, local residents’ associations and environmental organizations gathered at Zaventem station, before walking through the village towards the airport. Along the way, those present chanted slogans such as “no more flights, no way”, “the sky has a limit” and “night flights steal our nights”. As soon as they reached the airport, the demonstrators sang a reworked version of “Stille Nacht” in French and Dutch.

You can almost see the wheels of these planes

We interview participants. “The problem is that we don’t sleep well. You can’t sleep well, but also when you’re on the terrace in summer, you can’t hear each other talk. You can almost see the wheels of these planes,” explains one resident. “A good balance between the economy, ecology, employment and health,” Bertrand Waucquez, from the Belgian Union Against Air Pollution, told the crowd. “I needed this support, because it’s not just during the day, but also at night. I’ve been sleeping for months with earplugs in,” confides one protester. “Often, when the weather’s fine, we have a plane landing every minute all day, often until 12:30am, and it starts again at 5am. We can’t sleep with the window open”, explains another participant.

Here are their main requests:

abolish night flights between 11pm and 6am, impose a low-emission zone in the sky, so that only low-CO2 emission and less noisy aircraft can land, cap the number of flights per year at 220,000, compared with 234,000 before Covid.

Jasper Wouters, representative of Bond Beter Leefmilieu – the Flemish branch of Inter Environnement – pointed out that Brussels Airport’s determination to continue growing would, in the event of a green light, mean not only an increase in freight and passenger numbers, but also in nitrogen oxide emissions and the number of trucks on the roads.

The event comes as Brussels airport’s environmental permit expires in mid-July 2024. The airport is seeking a new permit to allow it to continue expanding, a move opposed by local residents who have been fighting the nuisance for years. They have openly threatened legal action if the permit is granted.

Support from the federal minister

The Federal Minister for Mobility says he supports the local residents. He denounces the role of Flanders. “Flanders is trying to prevent us from taking action. There is an appeal to the Council of State on an act I took to appoint and confirm the role of the federal state in the management of air pollution, which the Flemish government is contesting”, Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo) told us.

The airport underlines its economic role

Brussels airport, for its part, does not want night flights to be abolished. “We’re talking about 16,000 direct and indirect jobs in cargo alone, but it goes beyond that. A lot of Belgian companies depend on import-export, and therefore use our airport to transport goods”, reacts Nathalie Pierard, spokeswoman for Brussels Airport.

The health cost of noise pollution is estimated at 1 billion euros. For symbolic effect, the 600 demonstrators sang a revisited version of “Douce nuit” at the foot of the airport.