UBCNA-BUTV

UBCNA Press Release Sunday, APRIL 17, 2016

The Union Belge Contre les Nuisances des Avions ( UBCNA-BUTV ), Belgium’s oldest and largest association for the defence of people living near airports, has learned of the appointment of François BELLOT, Walloon MP and Mayor of Rochefort, as Minister for Mobility with responsibility for Belgocontrol.

François BELLOT’s experience in transport is best known in the rail sector.

Like all the people of Brussels, we expect the new Minister for Mobility to adopt an impartial attitude to the issue of night flights and overflights over Brussels, and to understand the right to a better environment of all the neighbors of Brussels Airport.

François BELLOT’s airport priorities will undoubtedly be to :

– organizing flight patterns during work on runway 01/19 in summer 2016
– clarify the values of wind standards and components, and of the famous wind at altitude, which are currently unclear criteria for the choice of runways to be used at Brussels Airport
– to comply fully with all legal provisions, which are in no way contradictory but complementary, and thus to take radical measures to prevent obvious abuses in the wrongful and illegal use of the 01 airstrip.
– fully apply all European regulations, including the Balanced Approach Regulation
– create an independent authority to monitor procedures at Brussels-National level, responsible for ensuring compliance with all regulations
– ensure that all residents living near Brussels-National are also taken into account in air traffic organization decisions
– apply the voluntary and courageous town-planning measures taken by the Liège and Charleroi authorities to Brussels-National as well, with the isolation and expropriation of areas that are too close and therefore too exposed to noise levels
– strengthen the resources and powers of the Aeronautical Administration in matters of safety, security and environmental policing

The UBCNA is at the disposal of the new Minister BELLOT to present his structural plan for Brussels-National, and wishes him good luck in his new ministerial duties.

Please accept our warmest aeronautical regards.

Bernard GUILLAUME
President of UBCNA-BUTV vzw

Peggy CORTOIS
Managing Director of UBCNA-BUTV vzw

The presentation of the 2040 development plan for Brussels Airport is a non-event. This document contains no measures in favor of the environment, and no progress other than a free hand towards economic efficiency, said the Union Belge Contre les Nuisances des Avions (UBCNA) on Thursday, reacting to the presentation of the strategic vision of Brussels Airport Company (BAC).

“Mr Feist (editor’s note: the CEO of BAC) seems to want to reach out, but he never listens to the opinions of local residents and neighboring municipalities. The only thing Brussels Airport cares about is maximum economic return… At the operational level, Arnaud Feist seems to forget that his airport is the worst in Europe in environmental terms, that the Zaventem site is surrounded by highly urbanized areas, and that it is impossible to fly without disturbing the cities of Brussels, Mechelen and Leuven”, commented Peggy Cortois, the managing director of the main association of local residents on the eastern outskirts of the national airport, on Thursday.

For Ms. Cortois, the solutions proposed in terms of operating procedures are “purely fanciful” and do not respect aeronautical logic, weather forecasts or even court rulings when it comes to using the three runways 01 and 25 right and left at the same time “in defiance of elementary safety rules”; using runway 19 for take-off for all types of aircraft, disregarding negative safety studies; “conditionally” extending runway 25L by 900 meters; or using runway 07 right to land “over the Grand-Place of Brussels”.

In the UBCNA’s view, runway 25 left should be extended by at least 1,800 meters to avoid all urbanized areas during take-off; night flights have no place at Brussels-National; and day flights should no longer be increased.

Belga 2016-11-17 1828

A ministerial instruction issued by the Minister or his administration (of unknown date and form) has modified since July 13 the runway selection system at Brussels airport.
According to the burgomasters of Wezembeek-Oppem and Kraainem, as well as the local associations Wake Up Kraainem, AWACSS and UBCNA, “this Preferential Runaway System (PRS) tracks cannot be modified for a long period of time without a regulatory instruction that complies with the French Air Code, and the from 1954 and 2014. Only the Minister or his representative, the Director general of air transport, can take such instructions”.

For Fréderic Petit, mayor of Wezembeek-Oppem, “since Monday 13th July 2020, in spite of numerous court rulings that prohibit the principle of reversal and the abusive use of the 01 runway on landing, and various environmental shutdowns, only runway 01/19 is used for all rollover traffic, so it’s either SOUTH to NORTH on 01 landings or in the opposite direction NORTH to SOUTH on take-off 19. This leads to 100% total concentration of all flights in a single zone, which is affected by either 100% of landings or 100% of landings. take-offs. Yet only one runway is closed: 07L/25R. The totally unacceptable suffering for the inhabitants who do not close their eyes! ” .

However, the Wake-Up KRAAINEM and AWACSS local residents’ associations, “other schemes use of existing runways such as 07R/25L. The company Skeyes, the autonomous public air traffic control company, does not use the 07R/25L runway when it’s available; the 25L runway could very well be well be used for landings, especially as the landings 25L arrive by flying over meadows and fields, through a non buildable”.

For the Mayor of Kraainem, Bertrand Waucquez, “We need to be constructive and reasonable. He is to limit night flights. I recommend using also the following diagrams (landing and take-off):
– 25L/25L (only when traffic is light, since runway 25L has no taxiway leading to its end)
– 07R/07R
– 25L landings and 01 takeoffs (the lowest-noise scheme historically used at night)
– 19 landings and 07R take-offs (the least-noise scheme used during earlier work)
He continues: “However, here we have chosen to concentrate solely on the serious evaluation of alternative solutions, all the traffic on the track 01/19 regardless of the wind’s origin, even if it means using this scheme with overtaking dangerous for downwind safety. The a risky situation, to be avoided wherever possible”.

All deploring the lack of forecasts from Brussels Airport (which could have carried out this work during the containment period at the beginning of May) at a time when the airline industry was at a virtual standstill, L’Union Belge Contre Nuisances (UBCNA)” reminds us that, compared with other tracks available, it should be noted that track 01/19 is the equipped, the shortest, the only one with a slope, not having high-speed exits and end-of-track clearance areas, the only one which, in its final phase, crosses over three electrified at 3,000 volts direct current, which requires crossings to be of aircraft on the ground in use with 07R take-offs. What must is safety and health”.

For conclusion, the mayors and local residents’ associations concerned request Minister Bellot and Skeyes to urgently review which unilaterally modified the selection system for pistes.

2 priorities of the Platform of 12 (June 2015) are recalled, by 14 associations:

• Annual flights limited to 220,000
• More night flights

Common Platform night flights 2017-03-07