Stronger Brussels Airport “could create 10,000 jobs”

A stronger Brussels Airport with more flights and a regime of harmonised noise levels could deliver up to 10,000 new jobs over the course of the next 10 years, according to the airport’s CEO, Arnaud Feist.

Feist (pictured) was presenting the company’s latest results, as well as a memorandum he has prepared for the negotiators who are putting together federal and regional governments.

The memo, which will also go to mayors of the municipalities around Zaventem, calls for an increase in flights from a maximum of 74 per hour at present to 80, and the disappearance of the maximum of 16,000 night-time slots per year, a restriction imposed in 2009.

The global maximum is no longer close to being reached, but the measure contains a maximum of 5,000 flights taking off from Zaventem, which cause the most noise nuisance, and that figure is continually growing. The Feist memo also rejects plans to extend the period during which night flights are deemed to take place, which is currently from 23.00 to 6.00.

That requirement, as well as a harmonisation of permitted noise levels among airports, would lead to a stronger airport capable of providing 10,000 new jobs in 10 years, Feist said. If the company’s needs are not taken care of, on the other hand, the jobs of 60,000 people currently employed by the airport could be at risk, he said.

In the first six months of this year, Brussels Airport saw nearly 10 million passengers pass through, an increase of 12% on the same period last year. The main reason is the arrival of low-cost airline Ryanair in February. Not only did Ryanair bring its own passengers for flights to 10 new destinations, it also put pressure on other low-cost airlines using Zaventem, such as EasyJet and Vueling, to lower their prices, leading to more passengers.