More than 6,000 aviation-related offences were recorded at the national airport in 2025, including 1,317 federal violations and 4,758 regional infractions, according to the annual report published on Wednesday by the Federal Ombudsman for the airport.
The federal infractions involved prohibited night flights, lack of time slots, breaches of nighttime quiet periods, and the use of daytime take-off procedures during the night, explained Philippe Touwaide, the head of the ombudsman service.
An independent time slot coordinator identified 1,032 night-time flights conducted without allocated slots, comprising 558 landings and 474 take-offs.
Touwaide also noted that, during the first 10 months of 2025, 4,758 violations of Brussels noise regulations were recorded using environmental monitoring equipment managed by Brussels Environment.
These breaches contradict Article 34 of Brussels Airport Company’s licence, which requires strict adherence to noise standards established by both the Brussels-Capital Region and the Flemish Region, in coordination with the federal government.
In February 2025, the Brussels Court of First Instance issued an environmental injunction prohibiting the state from using certain flight routes – Canal, Ring, and the one for landings on runway 01 – during nighttime hours, citing increased breaches of noise regulations compared to 2017 data for the same period.
For Touwaide, airport operators must urgently comply with judicial rulings and legal requirements to significantly reduce infractions, especially those occurring at night.
