A proposed raise in the environmental tariffs that airlines must pay Brussels Airport is being postponed until at least March 2023 as a result of the current coronavirus crisis.
The new tariffs are designed to tax higher polluting planes that use the airport and are based on both the emissions - including CO2 and nitrogen oxide - and the noise produced by jets, according to La Libre.
But the pandemic has hit the aviation industry particularly hard, with travel bans severely limiting people’s ability to travel and demands for social distancing resulting in many tickets being deliberately left unsold, so as to create empty seats on the plane between passengers.
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Because the consequences of the coronavirus crisis on the industry cannot yet be determined, it’s impossible for the Brussels Airport Company to sit down with airlines and consult over the tariffs, which are supposed to be fixed for a five-year period following discussions with the company on any expected evolutions in traffic.
Airlines pay the airport a tax per passenger on the plane as a way to compensate for the services of Brussels Airports.
The existing tariffs were introduced in April of 2016 and were already extended once last year before this additional extension.
Helen Lyons
The Brussels Times
