Nine times more complaints about aircraft noise in Brussels

The number of complaints from local residents about noise caused by airplanes landing and taking off at Brussels Airport last year reached a record high of nearly 90,000 complaints. That is nine times more than the year before, reports L'Echo.

In 2013, the ombudsman received about 9,770 complaints about noise nuisance around the airport. However, a new flight route plan introduced by federal transport minister Melchior Wathelet in February, 2014, resulted in a significant increase in the number of complaints about noise.

The so-called Wathelet Plan led to discontent among residents from numerous Brussels communities affected by the noise, especially in Etterbeek, Auderghem, Boitsfort, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Schaerbeek and Uccle.

Federal mobility minister Jacqueline Galant is working on an independent supervisory body to work on the issue of noise nuisance around the airport. The Brussels-Capital Region has long been in favour of the creation of such a body.

IIn Jul, a Belgian court  ruled that the Wathelet Plan would have to be altered because some of the new routes were illegal. The federal government then declared a temporary moratorium on the plan, which by April should result in the flight paths returning to the way they were before February, 2014.