"Landing at Brussels Airport will become more dangerous"

[Nevihta]

To be on topic, if you raise the tailwind limit for a runway change, landing (and take off) at Brussels will become more dangerous.
(more dangerous doesn't always mean it's dangerous...)
We are not in the US, a rwy change, even in a peak time is not impossible.
Problem is when the wind change is temporary...

[sn26567]

New takeoff procedures to reduce noise Zaventem

Planes taking off from Brussels Airport are using new routes since January 9. Specifically, the new routes will reduce noise and improve the lives of residents of several municipalities, mainly in the north of Brussels. Since January 9, the old path called DENUT is changed, forcing pilots to make a right turn to the northwest before reaching the beacon. The change also bans the Belgian sky crossing between the old road leading to the Chièvres beacon (CIV2C) and the former DEDNUT above the town of Wemmel (see infographic before January 9 hereunder). This is a step forward in safety .

Moreover, in the new configuration, the road leading to the Chièvres beacon over the Brussels ring road will no longer be used on Saturday and Sunday nights. At night, the pilots will now take the route of the canal over a less densely populated area. The situation leads to an improvement of the living environment of residents of municipalities in northern Brussels / Noordrand ( Haren, Koningslo, Vilvoorde, Strombeek, Meise, Wemmel, etc.).

Two steps yet to come

New paths in force since January 9th (see infographic after this date) are only one step in the process of improving the situation of residents around the airport. Another step on February 6th will be sending all large aircraft that take off from runway 25R on a road over the Canal during the day. The "left turn" is redesigned and will be forbidden for jumbo jets. This situation will improve the lives of residents of towns in the Oostrand (Kraainem, Wezembeek-Oppem, Sterrebeek, Diegem, Overijse, etc.). At night, there will be no flights over the ring road; they will be diverted onto a road that passes over the canal. According to calculations, the changes that will take place from 6 February will reduce traffic over the Noordrand by some 550 aircraft.

Another step procedures off from one month later. On 6 March the planes take off to the beacon of Huldenberg not overfly the area of Leuven, resulting in an improvement for the inhabitants of several neighbouring towns (Bertem, Heverlee, Meerbeek, Neerijse, Overijse, etc.).

Reduction of military airspace

An agreement was also reached with the Department of Defence for the military to cede some of their airspace to civilian activities. However, in exceptional situations, military aircraft will be allowed to use the airspace assigned to commercial airlines.

The new measures reinforce those already operational since 19 September. For about four months, the diagonal runway 01/19 (ex-02/20) has returned to its status as non-preferential runway. It is used for landing if the average wind speed is greater than 7 knots on parallel tracks 25.



Based on an article in L'Echo on 16 Jan 2014

[Passenger]

Five mayors from Flemish towns in the Noordrand have asked the Flemish goverment to formally object this latest change with the Raad van State / Conseil D'Etat. Grimbergen, Machelen, Meise, Vilvoorde and Wemmel say that the new routes will move too much movements above the (Flemish) Noordrand.

The Flemish government has agreed to ask the RvS/CdE to suspend (urgent matter) and cancel (indept case) the latest move by Belgocontrol, ordered by secretary of State Wathelet.

[sean1982]

This was to be expected off course. Untill the time airplanes can warp in and out of airports and the prevailing wind in belgium is west, the noordrand will always bear the brink of the noise. Having said that, it's ridiculous to complain about (and even more to take it to court) as there are airplanes flying there for a lot longer time then most of the people who live there. All of them probably got serious discounts on their houses, kinda hypocrite to then go and complain about the noise.

[Airbus330lover]

Elections on 25 may

[Passenger]

Elections on 25 may

Indeed, that's probably the reason why Wathelet ordered Belgocontrol to send more flights over "Flemish" towns, and thus less flights over regions with lots of French speaking inhabitants.

[sn26567]

Errr!

New takeoff procedures to reduce noise Zaventem

Planes taking off from Brussels Airport are using new routes since January 9. Specifically, the new routes will reduce noise and improve the lives of residents of several municipalities, mainly in the north of Brussels.

[Passenger]

Errr!

New takeoff procedures to reduce noise Zaventem

Planes taking off from Brussels Airport are using new routes since January 9. Specifically, the new routes will reduce noise and improve the lives of residents of several municipalities, mainly in the north of Brussels.

Indeed André, that was the content of the press release: Wathelet promised less flights and better conditions for the Noordrand.

However, it now seems that the Belgocontrol silently implements new rules that result in more flights for the Noordrand.

It's like the Dutch oneliner "luister naar mijn woorden (maar kijk niet naar mijn daden)". Listen to what I say (but don't look at what I'm doing).

[tolipanebas]

All too many people got fooled by a verbal little subtlety here: the 'North of Brussels' is not really the same as the 'Noordrand', in fact the 'Noordrand' lays to the North around Brussels, so its a different place if you define the 'North of Brussels' as just the 5 northerly communes of the Region of Brussels, which is apparently what Wathelet did, so he did exactly as promised: the 'North of Brussels' (i.e; those communes) indeed gets avoided a bit more... by flying about a mile or so more to the North, thus overflying more of the 'Noordrand'.

[cirrus]

Dear Passenger,

Belgocontrol does not silently implements the new rules / routes. The governement has imposed those changes to Belgocontrol who doesn't have the choice anymore.
And believe me that not one air traffic controller is happy about it...

[Passenger]

Dear Passenger,

Belgocontrol does not silently implements the new rules / routes. The governement has imposed those changes to Belgocontrol who doesn't have the choice anymore.
And believe me that not one air traffic controller is happy about it...

Actually, it was Mrs Jo Schauvliege, Flemish minister for Environment, who said that Belgocontrol is involved here, during a debate in the Flemish Parliament today.

This is the link to the full transcription of today’s debate:
http://www.vlaamsparlement.be/Proteus5/ ... ?id=912251

Allow me to give the most relevant quote from that text = what the minister said:

Remark: this is a quote from "Handelingen Plenaire Vergadering van 05 februari 2014" - which remains an unofficial text untill each of the MEP's has approved his/her speech. Quotes may be corrected within two weeks.

"... Vandaag stellen wij vast dat Belgocontrol instructies heeft gegeven om in de officiële richtlijnen van de Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) twee vliegroutes – DENUT en CIV – op te schuiven, in de richting van het noorden. Dat zorgt ervoor dat de Noordrand meer wordt overvlogen. Dat is geen beslissing van de Federale Regering. Dat is geen gevolg van een wet. Het gaat om een actie ten gevolge van de maatregel van Belgocontrol om dat in de officiële richtlijnen van AIP in te schrijven. Ten gevolge daarvan stellen wij vast dat het Luchthavenakkoord met voeten wordt getreden. Wij stellen ook vast dat de procedure niet is gerespecteerd. Er is niet overlegd met de Vlaamse Regering. Er is ook geen impactstudie gemaakt. Voorts is er geen uitspraak georganiseerd, en dat is volgens ons een inbreuk op het Verdrag van Aarhus. Dat zijn de redenen waarom wij naar de Raad van State stappen. Wij vragen de schorsing en uiteindelijk de vernietiging van de verschuivingen. Wij vechten dus de handeling van Belgocontrol aan..." (end of quote of the official transcription)

My translation – and I really tried to do it as objective as possible:

Today we note that Belgocontrol gave instructions that two routes, DENUT and CIV, have to be moved north bound in the official guidelines for the Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP). This causes that the Noordrand now gets more traffic. This is no decision from the federal government. This is not part of a law. This is an act caused by Belgocontrol’s decision to amend the AIP. This means that the general airport agreement (Luchthavenakkoord) now is violated. Furthermore, the legal process hasn’t been respected. There was no consultation with the Flemish government. The was no “study on the impact”. There was no public consultation about the decision, which is against the Aarhus Treaty. This is why we’ve started a Legal case with the Raad van State / Conseil D’Etat. We indeed assail (“aanvechten") Belgocontrol’s decision. (end of my translation).

(remark for the CD&V members here: I know that the first name of the minister isn’t Jo, but I wanted to avoid a joke about her real name)

edited : I've added the remark about the possibility for MEP's to adjust their quotes. The Flemish Parliament asks for such remark when quoting from a text within two weeks after the parliamentary session.

[cirrus]

First of all thank you for this article.

Unfortunately, what it says is not the truth. Having participated myself in this project, I can assure you that Belgocontrol has been pushed (not to say forced) to adapt the routes. This was a clear order given by the federal governement and Belgocontrol was just given a few months to put it on paper and (try to) make it work.

The fact that the flemish governement wasn't advised or consulted is an issue at political level.

By the way, the adaptation of these routes is just a part of the project : the rest of the package (in force from March) will be about the new departure routes from runway 07L/R flying all around Leuven. Again a request from the federal governement.

Be sure that Belgocontrol had no money to waste in training its controllers (theory, simulations, etc) and that they would have preferred not to change anything.

Kind regards

[Passenger]

The same story was also brought up in Thursday's meeting of the federal Parliament.

The transcription is online, but so far without translation. That will be done in two weeks.

html - see Questions 03 and 04:
http://www.dekamer.be/doc/PCRI/html/53/ip183x.html

pdf - see Questions 03 and 04:
http://www.dekamer.be/doc/PCRI/pdf/53/ip183.pdf

Off topic: Hans Bonte is mayor of Vilvoorde and MEP for the sp.a, one of the government parties. It was quite remarkable to see how he confronted Melchior Wathelet, giving the fact that he is supposed to support the government.

(edited -> typo error)