{"id":1685,"date":"2026-02-13T07:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T07:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/1685\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T07:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T07:09:09","slug":"airlines-owe-brussels-capital-region-millions-of-euros-for-noisy-flights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/1685\/","title":{"rendered":"Airlines owe Brussels Capital Region millions of euros for noisy flights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Airlines owe the Brussels-Capital Region tens of millions of euros, it has emerged, after investigations by reporters at Le Soir found that only 20% of the fines issued for aircraft noise around Brussels Airport in the last 25 years have ever been paid.<\/p>\n

Since the year 2000, over 1,500 fines have been imposed on airlines guilty of breaking noise limit rules around Brussels Airport, amounting to a total debt of \u20ac32 million. Only six million euros of that sum has ever been settled, and legal costs remain outstanding as well.<\/p>\n

Noise pollution\u00a0affects around 220,000<\/a>\u00a0people in the capital, according to a 2023 study by the Flemish Federation for a Better Environment (Bond Beter Leefmilieu), and that\u2019s despite attempts to address the problem. In early 2023, for example, Brussels Airport introduced a new tariff structure to categorise planes into eight bands and\u00a0penalise the noisiest\u00a0and most polluting operators with airport charges up to 20 times those applied to more modern aircraft.<\/p>\n

Although action has been ongoing for years to make the airlines in question pay what they owe, at least \u20ac10.8 million has now been written off. Another figure of over six million euros has been categorised as \u201cnot recoverable\u201d, though attempts to recover the debt could go on for another 10 years. A further eight million euros is the subject of ongoing appeals.<\/p>\n

Controversy over aircraft noise and flight routes around the Belgian capital has been rumbling on for years. Various studies quantified the problem, with one 2017 investigation finding that noise pollution violations in Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe from a shocking 28% percent of flights. Most of that illegal noise occurred between 6 am and 7 am, research has found, prompting campaigners to note the detrimental effect of noise pollution on human health. Night flights are particularly problematic, affecting heart and vascular health in men.<\/p>\n

A 2023 study identified around 220,000 people in the capital, according to the Flemish Federation for a Better Environment (Bond Beter Leefmilieu), who suffer from airport noise<\/a>. In response, Brussels Airport introduced a new tariff structure to categorise planes into eight bands and\u00a0penalise the noisiest\u00a0and most polluting operators with airport charges up to 20 times those applied to more modern aircraft.<\/p>\n

In 2024, the Brussels environment agency took nuisance airlines that overfly the Belgian capital to court for the first time, based on 63 official reports dating from May 2024. Now, the latest report on airline fines by Le Soir means the topic has re-entered the headlines after the Federal Transport Minister Jean-Luc Crucke indicated he would undertake new talks with a number of Brussels mayors over the issue of noise pollution.<\/p>\n

The mayors had denounced \u201cunacceptable\u201d delays despite \u201cmonths of insistence\u201d before a \u201cdisappointing\u201d meeting was finally held on 4 February. Crucke has attempted to lower the temperature of the debate, saying it is a \u201ctechnical and regulatory issue\u201d and \u201cdeserves a rigorous and responsible approach.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Airlines owe the Brussels-Capital Region tens of millions of euros, it has emerged, after investigations by reporters at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1629,1621,1624,1628,1625,18,135,1620,1623,1627,1631,1633,1630,1626,1622,1632],"class_list":{"0":"post-1685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brussels","8":"tag-aircraft-noise-enforcement","9":"tag-aircraft-noise-fines","10":"tag-airport-noise-health-effects","11":"tag-airport-noise-legal-action","12":"tag-aviation-environmental-regulations","13":"tag-brussels","14":"tag-brussels-airport","15":"tag-brussels-airport-noise","16":"tag-brussels-noise-pollution","17":"tag-brussels-residents-noise","18":"tag-flanders","19":"tag-noise","20":"tag-noise-pollution","21":"tag-noise-violation-penalties","22":"tag-unpaid-airline-fines","23":"tag-zaventem-airport"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}