The instruction issued by the outgoing Belgian federal Transport minister Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo / Greens) to ban the use of DHL’s B777Fs at Brussels Airport, has met with a tidal wave of disapproval in the economic community at and around the airport. The move is seen as political mainly.
Mr Gilkinet says that DHL and Aeorologic have been operating illegally for a decade, as legislation introduced on 3 May 2004 states that aircraft with a noise QC over 8 would be banned from night operations. The B777F, so it seems, has a QC of 10.7. Even then, an exception was made for DHL’s B777’s, with the integrator limiting the payload on the aircraft which would make them less noisy on take-off.
If DHL were to follow the instruction, it would have to replace its B777 freighters by A300’s, which are a lot smaller, would have to be fully loaded and would thus be much noisier than the triple Sevens.
Mr Gilkinet claims that, since 2021, DHL has not come forward with concrete solutions to operate within the legal framework, even if the company has other less noisy aircraft at its disposal. The minister said that he gave the instruction to implement the legislation fully as early as on 24 July last year.
Unilateral and without concertation
On the regional – Flemish – side Mr Gilkinet’s initiative is seen as no less than a provocation, to clip the wings of Flanders’ second important economic cluster after the Port of Antwerp-Bruges. The Flemish regional government considers the minister’s move as politically inspired, as the current federal government has been caretaking since the latest parliamentary election on 9 June. This brought defeat for Mr. Gilkinet’s Green Party.
Kris Claes, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce Voka Vlaams-Brabant challenges the fact that a caretaking minister wants to impose unilaterally, without political concertation, a measure that would harm the citizens and would put one company in the crosshairs only. “This goes against all the previous discussions and consultations with different levels, and is also a direct blow to the efforts DHL has been making for years to reduce noise pollution,” he says. “This decision not only causes more noise nuisance for local residents, but also has a potential impact on employment at DHL.”
Conflict of interests
Some Flemish politicians consider the minister’s decision as a devious attempt to promote the Walloon airports of Liege and Charleroi to the detriment of Brussels Airport.
The Flemish government has now invoked a conflict of interests procedure, which will take the matter to the Concertation Committee, a body set up to manage the collaboration between the federal and the regional governments. This procedure automatically postpones the implementation of the measure by 60 days. By then the contours of a new more centre-right leaning – and economy-friendly – federal government should be clearer. In a press release, Brussels Airport has stated that it too regrets the far-reaching proposal of Mr Gilkinet. “This is happening without any concertation with the airport or the air industry. The European procedure for imposing exploitation limits has not been respected either. The airport, the industry and the residents do not benefit from the launching of this type of extreme and unsupported proposals. They only create uncertainty, concern and polarisation. They impede sustainable and balanced solutions to the benefit of all parties concerned.”
Best widebody available
DHL spokesman Lorenzo Van de Pol admits that Mr. Gilkinet has been toying with the idea to withdraw the permission the company has enjoyed for over ten years. “Should this be carried out effectively, it would mean that DHL can no longer perform operations with the B777F from Brussels Airport during the night. In that case we would be forced to deploy other, less modern aircraft, which would indeed cause more nuisance for the residents. The B777 is the most modern and most quiet widebody available today on the global market,” he told CFG.
“Further, I understood that the Flemish government has invoked a conflict of interests against the plans of Mr. Gilkinet, which would put his instruction on hold and with discussion within the Concertation Committee to come first. So, as yet there are no immediate consequences for the DHL operation.”
