IATA opposes ban on night flights at Brussels airport

IATA has voiced its opposition to proposals that would see night flights banned at Brussels airport on the grounds of noise-reduction, claiming such a move would ignore Belgium’s international obligations. The country’s federal transport minister Georges Gilkinet presented a document to cabinet on 14 July proposing a ban on flights from Brussels airport between 23:00 and 06:00 from October 2024. The proposal also restricts noise at other times of the day, affecting a raft of older aircraft types, including Airbus A320s and A330s, alongside Boeing 737s, 767s and 747s. While the proposal from Gilkinet, who is a member of the Ecolo green party, still needs to win support from government coalition partners, the airline association has responded to the document amid a growing number of anti-noise moves by legislators. The most high-profile case saw a court recently lift a block on reducing flights from Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport from this winter. “The noise concerns of the community around Brussels airport must be heard, but it is profoundly unfortunate that [Gilkinet] has attempted to circumvent the ‘Balanced Approach’, which is the long-accepted and successful international process for managing airport noise impacts,” says Rafael Schvartzman, IATA’s regional vice-president for Europe. The ‘Balanced Approach’ refers to European Union regulation introduced in 2014 that lays out the rules and procedures under which any noise-abatement decisions should be made by member states. IATA argues that the regulation means flight restrictions should be applied as a last resort, after a “detailed consultation and cost-benefit analysis”, when other mitigation measures have been exhausted. The Brussels Times has also reported opposition to the proposals from Brussels Airlines CE Dorothea von Boxberg.<br/>