Brussels Airport: Runway closed for more than six weeks over summer

One of Brussels Airport's three take-off and landing runways will be closed from 12 July until 27 August due to construction work, the national airport at Zaventem has announced.

Runway 07R/25L is to undergo complete renovation of its top and bottom layers of asphalt and be equipped with new lighting and an improved drainage system.

During the refurbishment work, no aircraft will be able to use this runway, which is one of the airport’s most important ones for take-offs and landings.

As another runway (01/19) crosses the middle of this runway, it will also be closed to air traffic between 2 and 12 August when work is carried out at the intersection.

This leaves only one runway (07L/25R) operational for the 10-day period. The southernmost of the airport's two parallel runways, it is primarily used for landings. More than half of the aircraft arriving at Zaventem last year landed on this runway, mainly from the east.

Due to the work, preferential runway use — which dictates which runways are used according to the weather conditions — will not always be possible, says Brussels Airport.

But the work is not expected to impact airport operations, “though (limited) delays” are not excluded, it adds.

If any delays occur during the renovation, work will continue all night and on Sundays to ensure the runway refurbishment is completed by 27 August.

“In total 290,000m² of asphalt will be replaced, equivalent to 40 football fields. The last renovation work of this scale on this runway dates back to 2015,” the airport says.

Photo: ©Brussels Airport