Name of the Organisation you are representing This represents the views of the ‘NPO Rechtdoor’, Klein Eikeblok 36, 3150 Tildonk.

A short statement about the noise issues as you see them For a long time the region ‘Leuven Rechtdoor’ (communities Wijgmaal, , , , ) are familiar with the noise of landing planes. But in March 2014 the situation changed fundamentally. During decades planes have been taking off west of Leuven in case of wind from the east or north in a non-preferential scheme (red arrows in figure 1, communities of , Oud- Heverlee and south of Herent). Suddenly a new departure flight path was introduced in which planes take off to the north of Leuven (black arrows in Figure 1). Never before in the history of the airport, planes have been taking off above this region and by doing so bewildered its inhabitants.

As a result the region west of Leuven became a total no-fly zone without any plane landing or taking off (see Figure 2). The noise disturbance was relocated and concentrated above the region ‘Leuven Rechtdoor’ that already experiences considerable noise disturbance from landing planes. As such this has become the only region around the airport that never enjoys any rest period from either landing or departing planes (figure 2).

This change towards a concentration of noise disturbance is in total contrast with the stated policy aim of a ‘fair dispersion’ of noise from planes at the federal as well as at the regional level. The current federal coalition agreement provides for an evaluation of the new ‘Leuven Rechtdoor’ path. This evaluation was delivered by Belgocontrol (currently Skeyes) on June 26th 2015 and confirms what was already feared for before the introduction of the new flight path. In particular, the flight path ‘Leuven Rechtdoor’, in comparison to the previous historical flight route west of Leuven, causes more noise nuisance, impedes the capacity of the airport, produces more CO2 and pollutant emissions and is also a complete operational and technical blunder for air traffic control, with greater security risks. The latter is confirmed by the near collision on February 23th 2018 between two aircraft that followed the ‘Leuven Rechtdoor’ path. Due to the operational problems, the planned route is also frequently deviated from, so that densely populated municipalities such as Wilsele and Kessel-Lo are also confronted with noise nuisance (see green radar tracks on figure 1). We must conclude that the introduction and enforcement of this flight path is not supported by any objective criterion and is a purely political decision. In doing so, these politicians undermine the support of local residents for the economically important Brussels airport.

Improvement proposals

Too often wind criteria for landing and taking-off in certain directions are tinkered with to change the burden in specific regions. We believe such changes in wind criteria must be avoided. Wind criteria are a technical issue, not a tool for noise dispersion, so wind criteria have no place in any improvement proposal. Moreover for the ‘Leuven Rechtdoor’ region, changing wind criteria only modifies the ratio landing / departing planes and does not bring back the resting periods the region enjoyed before the introduction of the ‘Leuven Rechtdoor’ path.

1/ We believe that all regions around the airport should contribute to bearing the burden of noise disturbance. A fair dispersion of noise disturbance is essential for a broader acceptance of the airport by neighboring communities. We are aware that the concrete elaboration of ‘fair’ is discussion material, but it is totally unacceptable that a region west of Leuven and close to the airport refuses to accept any noise disturbance and is declared a no-fly zone. Especially when this region has known a flight path since decades. Creating no-fly zones equals a “nimby” attitude that cannot be rewarded in a fair society.

2/ For the improvement of noise burden, we believe the communities affected must be given periodic relief. A concentration of the burden with – depending on the wind direction - planes either taking-off or landing above the same region must be avoided. All regions around the airport need some rest periods during which planes follow alternative paths allowing inhabitants to enjoy pauses from airplane noise.

3/ Great caution must be taken in changing or creating new flight paths. The region ‘Leuven Rechtdoor’ has never before been confronted with departing planes, no wonder the new flight path causes anger among its inhabitants. New paths should only be considered when sound objective criteria are available. However, as the independent study from Belgocontrol on ‘Leuven Rechtdoor’ shows, this is not at all the case. We believe more importance should be given to technical and operational evaluations in the choice of flight paths instead of merely political considerations as is the case with the ‘Leuven Rechtdoor’ flight path. This will increase the support in the neighboring communities to accept some of the burden from noise pollution.

4/ In addition, a judge has ruled on May 30th 2018 that all remaining points of the “plan Wathelet”, including the 7th point, the Leuven Rechtdoor procedure, have to be abandoned. The Belgian government has not appealed this decision.

What matters is a fair distribution of the burden, in function of historical flight paths, population density, safety and operational complexity of flight procedures. ‘Leuven Rechtdoor’ does not qualify under any of these criteria. We therefore request that the ‘Leuven Rechtdoor’ flight path be abandoned. A return to the historical equilibrium in the Leuven region is necessary, whereby the area west of Leuven also assumes at least part of the noise burden, just as the ‘Leuven Rechtdoor’ region has been willing and continues to be willing to do so.

Any links or pdf that you would share publicly supporting your position

Uitvoering luchthavenakkoorden in strijd met eigen principes, 25-10-2013, persbericht Belgian Guild of Air Traffic Controllers en ACV Transcom. Memorandum: Terug naar een billijke spreiding, 15-8-2014, vzw Leuven Rechtdoor Bijkomende geluidshinder onder Leuven Rechtdoor regio sinds 6 maart 2014, 7-11-2014, vzw Leuven Rechtdoor Bijkomende geluidshinder door Leuven Rechtdoor: 2015, 12-6-2015, vzw Leuven Rechtdoor Evaluation of EBBR Standard Instrument Departures 25R NW and ’07 rechtdoor’, 26-6-2015, Belgocontrol. Overvlogen bevolking door nieuwe route Leuven Rechtdoor versus historische route Leuven West, 20- 6-2016, vzw Leuven Rechtdoor Website: www.leuvenrechtdoor.be / Facebook: Leuven Rechtdoor

Figure 1: radar tracks of flights in a N/E wind configuration: Leuven Rechtdoor crosses the north and east side of Leuven.

Figure 2: radar tracks on October 10th 2018 when both preferential (take-off to the west) as non- preferential (take-off to the east) flight paths were operational. De only region that today has no single plane is the historical taking-off zone west of Leuven (indicated by red circle).