The agreement will harmonise wind-speed limits, which are currently different for the various runways. There will also be more use made of the route over the Willebroek canal, which involves less nuisance to residential areas. In addition, take-offs involving a leftward turn over Brussels will be spread out, as will take-offs from runway 25R to the southeast, while take-offs from runway 07R to the southeast will be adapted so as to pass over less heavily populated areas. At the same time, a limit of 16,000 night-flights per year and restrictions on older aircraft taking off and landing by day, will be maintained in a new law to be drawn up. Both measures were agreed during previous rounds of negotiation but were never enshrined in law.

The agreement has achieved what long seemed impossible to imagine: support from Flemish and Frenchspeaking interests, which have been in conflict for the past decade in an effort to defend the interests of their own constituencies. Belgian prime minister Yves Leterme praised the “outstanding work” of secretary of state for mobility, Etienne Schouppe. The agreement came as a welcome relief from the pressure on him, as former head of the rail authority NMBS, over the Buizingen train disaster last month.

According to Leterme, the new deal strikes a balance between the desires of residents and the airport in Zaventem. It was largely due to new rules on night-time noise that courier company DHL moved its European operations to Leipzig in 2008. Despite the negative economic impact, its relocation also saw the departure of many older and noisier aircraft, making the new agreement easier to reach. Residents themselves were less impressed. The group Actie Noordrand said it was “disappointed” by “good principles being applied to every region but the Noordrand (northern outskirts). We retain flights which are heading to the south, but which are unnecessarily diverted via the north. That whole principle clashes with the normal criteria of safety, capacity, economy and ecology,” the group said.