Mobility minister Bellot against more flights at Brussels Airport

Belgium's federal minister for mobility François Bellot (pictured) is opposed to any requests for more flights at Brussels Airport, he said in an interview with L'Echo. He advises the airport operator to aim instead for increased aircraft capacity at the airport.

“The texts guarantee 250,000 flights per year, 16,000 of which are at night," he said. “There is no question of increasing that number. There are other ways to guarantee the airport's growth, such as raising the aircraft utilisation rate. Ten years ago, there were 77 passengers per aircraft. Today we have a little more than 100. Increasing that number to 130 would be sufficient,” Bellot told the newspaper.

Airport operator Brussels Airport Company (BAC) is one of the proponents of an increase in flight numbers. The company asked to guarantee the current capacity of 74 coordinated movements per hour, but also requested that the airport evolve to allow 80 movements per hour.

"The occupancy rate has been increasing, from 109 persons in 2014 to 113 in 2015. We are not asking to increase the number of night flights," argued BAC spokesperson Anke Fransen.