This European airport is reducing around 1600 night flights per year: Here's the reason

BRUSSELS - A famous European airport has revealed plans to cut back on night flights, prompting concerns among the employees associated with the airport.  

Brussels Airport CEO, Arnaud Heist, has announced to implement strict regulations for nighttime flights. under which the airport will require any aircraft entering the runway after 11 pm without a slot allocation to return to the gate and disembark passengers.

Failure to comply with the guidelines may result in fines or delayed departures until the following day. The authorities say that the initiative aims to reduce the number of flights operating during the night, with an estimated 10% decrease in nighttime flights, impacting approximately 1,600 flights annually.

It must be kept in mind that Brussels Airport intends to maintain the same number of available slots for authorized night flights while disallowing unallocated operations. 

“An aircraft that goes onto the runway after 11 pm and doesn’t have a night slot will have to return to the gate and disembark the passengers”, Heist said at a press conference, clarifying that the number of night slots available will remain unchanged.

Besides the measures related to the night flight, Brussels Airport has unveiled plans to lower carbon emissions by replacing the current heating system with a Net Zero Carbon alternative by early 2027.

This transition will allow terminal buildings to be heated without emitting CO2. By implementing this innovative solution, the airport expects to reduce its carbon emissions by approximately 70%.

Brussels Airport witnessed a significant increase in passenger numbers, with almost two million passengers recorded in April 2023, which is an 18% surge compared to April 2022.

The top ten destinations for passengers departing from Brussels Airport in April 2023 were Spain, Italy, Germany, Portugal, the United States, Turkey, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Morocco.