RTBF -04-01-2024

Permits for Brussels Airport: the end of the public inquiry approaches, and organizations are beating the drum

Only a few days left before the end of the public inquiry. Residents near and far from Zaventem airport still have until next Monday to submit their comments and criticisms on Brussels Airport’s application to renew its environmental and operating permit.

“After this deadline, no further complaints may be lodged“, emphasize UBCNA, Epures and Comité Tervuren-Montgomery in a press release. The three associations are organizing an online information meeting this Thursday evening at 8pm, in the presence of the Federal Ombudsman for the National Airport, to clarify how to participate in the public inquiry.

Setting the course for the next 20 years

For both the airport and local residents, this is a pivotal moment. The permit is due to expire next July, so its renewal is intended to mark out what the airport can and cannot do over the next 20 years.

Although“several hundred local residents” have already written to the Flemish administration as part of this public inquiry, Bertrand Waucquez would like to boost this mobilization even further. “We’re not here to torpedo the airport’s business,” says the mayor of Kraainem and vice-chairman of the UBCNA,“but we need to ensure that its activities are carried out in a sustainable manner.”

Some twenty associations from all three regions of the country, united under the slogan “Nous n’en dormons plus!” (We can’t sleep!), agreed on a list of demands that runs counter to the airport management’s request for a permit, including an end to night flights and a ceiling of 220,000 air movements per year.