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Local pressure groups demand changes to Brussels airport

Xinhua, June 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

Local residents here presented a list of demands on Friday aimed at curbing the negative impact of the city's main airport on their daily lives.

A platform of 12 citizens' groups outlined their requests at a press conference.

Amongst their demands was a call for an independent study to investigate the possibility of relocating Zaventem Airport to a less populated area. They also insisted that certain activities at Brussels airport could be instead taken up by regional airports, such as Charleroi and Liege.

The issue of noise and air pollution has become a hot topic in the city following a decision last year to rearrange flight schedules and paths to and from the airport.

The civic groups, consisting of various residents associations, were calling for serious changes to flight schedules in an attempt to alleviate current inconveniences.

They are demanding that all flights to and from the airport between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. (2000 and 0500 GMT) be stopped as from June 13, 2016. On that date, an EU law restricting the ability of governments to intervene in flight scheduling comes into force.

In addition, the group is calling for an annual limit on the amount of flights per year to 220,000. Endit