Regional Airports receive more government support than expected

Followup on threads like [this](https://old.reddit.com/r/belgium/comments/zvqv7z/flanders_allows_the_development_of_its_regional/) and [this](https://old.reddit.com/r/belgium/comments/zu94dy/vlaanderen_houdt_regionale_luchthavens_open/)

[VRTNWS](https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2023/01/18/regionale-luchthavens-krijgen-meer-steun-dan-vermoed/)

[HLN](https://www.hln.be/binnenland/regionale-luchthavens-kosten-miljoenen-meer-dan-vermoed~ae9dd713/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter)

[De Standaard](https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20230117_98293642)

Translated from VTRNWS:

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**Regional airports get more state aid than thought**

The airports of Ostend and Antwerp will receive more aid than suspected. That is what De Standaard reports. In addition to Flemish subsidies, the federal government is also contributing.

Just before Christmas, the Flemish government decided to keep the three regional airports open until at least 2040. These are the airports of Antwerp, Ostend and Kortrijk-Wevelgem. It took this decision after a social cost-benefit analysis that did not speak very much in favor of the airports. The regional airports can only run without losses if they expand to the maximum, with passenger numbers far above what they have ever achieved.

But growing those airports further is still the plan: Antwerp with a focus on business and tourist passenger traffic. Ostend-Bruges mainly for tourist traffic, but also for local cargo. And Kortrijk-Wevelgem can develop further as a business airport. The Flemish government’s vision note also emphasizes the importance of regional airports for training pilots and aviation technicians or training flights.

**Federal aid through Skeyes**

Regional airports receive several million euros in subsidies each year from the Flemish government. But the federal government also contributes, it turns out. The federal government pays all costs for air traffic control at the regional airports of Antwerp and Ostend. It pays an annual sum of 9 million euros to air traffic controller Skeyes. This federal aid stems from a 1989 cooperation agreement on the regionalization of aviation, with a distribution key between the different regions.

This federal government support was not included in the Flemish government’s cost-benefit analysis. Piet De Roeck of Vliegerplein, the action group against Deurne airport, finds this incomprehensible: “If you add up the costs for the Flemish and federal government, you arrive at 142 million euros over five years for the airports of Antwerp and Ostend. An insane amount. It is unacceptable that these costs of the federal government have never been communicated, not even to the Flemish Parliament.”

**Flemish costs and benefits**

According to Flemish Minister of Mobility Lydia Peeters (Open VLD), the social cost-benefit analysis focuses on the costs and benefits for Flanders. “The costs and benefits at the federal level, but also beyond the national borders were not taken into account. Just as the analysis does not take into account created employment outside Flanders.”

For the Kortrijk-Wevelgem airport, these costs were taken into account because Flanders does pay for this service itself. “But so not for Antwerp and Ostend because there are no costs for Flanders there.”

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)