Calls are rising to close Antwerp Airport (located in Deurne, just outside the city centre) as the Flemish socialist party Vooruit does not see a future for it after growing losses.
Earlier this week, it was announced that Antwerp Airport is in financial difficulties, as losses have risen to €2.3 million. For the Flemish socialist Vooruit party in the Flemish Government, the airport no longer has "any added value" and Flanders should stop investing in it.
"The number of passengers is falling. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the airport had just over 300,000 passengers, and now there are only 200,000," said Kris Verduyckt, Vooruit fraction leader in the Flemish Parliament. "There is also hardly any cargo, which you still have at Ostend airport."
Like Ostend and Kortrijk, Antwerp Airport is owned by the Flemish Region. For Verduyckt, this means that Flanders is now spreading resources across airports that attract hardly any people but cost taxpayers a lot of money. "Our party has always been in favour of investing fewer resources in them, and we have also negotiated this in the coalition agreement."
Only getting worse
In 2023, a cost-benefit analysis was carried out to assess the airports' profitability. For every euro that the airport in Deurne generates privately, the Flemish Government has to contribute €3, according to Verduyckt.
"Since then, the number of passengers has fallen and the number of subsidies has risen. So that ratio will be even worse now," he said. "We have to provide schools, public transport and healthcare, but I do not think Flanders should be responsible for flights from every major city."
Flemish Minister for Mobility Annick De Ridder (N-VA), who is responsible for the airports in the region, is currently on holiday and did not wish to comment.
