Brussels Airport will beat its 2015 record with 24.5 million passengers this year. In 2015, the Airport had 23.5 million passengers. The Brussels Airport CEO, Arnaud Feist, spoke to L’Echo on Saturday. He has called for an end to fines for daytime cargo flights.
Brussels Airport will have 3 million more passengers than last year, the year of the attacks. There was a 7% drop in the number of passengers, to 21.8 million. This can be explained by the opening of new links in Europe and long-haul flight links.
With regards to cargo, the Airport will have handled in excess of 500,000 tonnes of goods. Arnaud Feist said people need to separate the issue of daytime cargo flights and the question of night-time flights. He has called for an end to fines for day-time cargo flights. He has said he thinks a solution to the general issue of noise pollution will not be found through the courts. The Mobility Minister François Bellot (MR) agrees with him.
With the election period coming up, the Brussels Airport CEO doesn’t see there being a solution soon. “It would not be easy to come up with measures to help under these circumstances. However, the issue must be made a high priority over the next few years”, he added. At the moment, it would appear there will be no solution to the air traffic problem in Brussels before 2018.
(Source: Belga)
