This was announced by the cabinet of Flemish Minister of Environment Zuhal Demir (N-VA). The new planning permission aims to allow further development of the Droneport site. It was recently announced that airport operator Brussels Airport Company is throwing its weight behind Droneport. The activities of LRA, and by extension the entire Droneport campus, focus on innovative and high-tech developments in the aviation sector. “An expansion of current testing in a training environment is part of Droneport as an economic growth hub,” announced Zuhal Demir’s cabinet.

Expansion

LRA organises both recreational and instructional flights with small aircraft in Brustem. The Government of Flanders issued a licence for this in 2019 and now had to consider a new application. In the past, LRA was responsible for 15,600 flight movements. The new application concerned a maximum of 30,000 flight movements per year, but only from sunrise to sunset, and never before 7am or after 10pm. “A noise study by KU Leuven shows that the expansion to 30,000 movements will not have any effect on the environmental noise for nearby houses,” Minister Demir said.

In addition, the air quality must also be monitored and reported every four months, which includes detecting the carcinogen benzene. “After all, an environmental permit can be revised at any time if necessary,” cautions Demir.