Arrival of Ryanair at Zaventem arouses fear of more noise nuisance

The arrival of Ryanair at Brussels Airport risks bringing with it more noise nuisance for the residents of Brussels, according to the mayor of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, one of the municipalities lying under the airport's flight paths. According to Benoît Cerexhe , Brussels Airport ought to remain a city airport, with a limited number of mainly passenger flights, most of which take place during the day.

This week the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair announced it would be introducing ten new destinations from Brussels Airport beginning in the new year – a total of 196 flights a week or an average of 28 a day.

That represented some 20,000 additional aircraft movements a year at Zaventem and promises, Cerexhe said, to send “the wrong signal to those living near the airport, and to the 200,000 people of Brussels who are affected by aircraft noise.”  The decision of Ryanair to start flying out of Brussels could, he said, attract other low-cost airlines to start using Zaventem, with the result of an increase in the number of flights in the early morning and late evening.

Meanwhile Brussels Airport company revealed that Ryanair made its first approaches to the company only during yesterday's press conference at which Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary announced the ten new routes. At present, Ryanair has not a single slot arranged for any of the 196 flights the airline is planning. The number of flights per week to each destination is as follows:

Alicante         14

Barcelona      42

Ibiza               14

Lisbon            28

Malaga           14

Palma             14

Porto              14

Rome             28

Valencia         14

Venice            14

Image credit: Curimedia/Wikimedia Commons