DHL noise curb won’t clinch Brussels deal
Even if global courier DHL were to limit the use of noisy planes at Brussels Airport, this would not be enough to reach a deal on its planned expansion, a key regional Belgian minister was quoted as saying on Wednesday. DHL’s plans to increase flights at Brussels’ Zaventem Airport hit new obstacles earlier this month when squabbling national and regional governments closed ranks to demand that the company reduce the use of noisy intercontinental planes.
“Even if DHL were to say today that it would be prepared to limit itself to four noisy MD-11 (planes) per night… the case will not yet be solved,” Yves Leterme, the prime minister of the northern Dutch-speaking Flanders region, told the daily Metro in an interview.
“Absolutely not, absolutely not,” he added, when asked whether a positive reply from DHL to a letter from the federal government to replace the MD-11 with less noisy planes as soon as possible, would constitute a final deal.
Leterme said the Flanders and Brussels regions also have to agree on a fair distribution of the routes of those night flights.
DHL has made veiled threats about leaving the country and taking thousands of jobs with it if the global courier does not get what it wants.
“Those jobs are important but it has to take place within a framework that spreads the burden in an even way,” Leterme said.
