Minister of Mobility Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo) wants to end so-called “hop-on hop-off” flights, or short-haul flights within Belgium. The ban would apply to all aircraft and turboprop aircraft.
Gilkinet is today submitting a draft Royal Decree to the Regions on the total ban. Every day, five planes take off from Belgium to land elsewhere in our country. They cover very short distances: often less than 100 kilometers. In 2022, 242 were flown over a distance of barely 40 kilometers between Brussels and Antwerp. 402 flights were also recorded between Brussels and Liège airports (85 km), and 273 between Brussels and Charleroi (55 km).
Private jets in particular are responsible for short-haul flights, which have increased in recent years. For example, they accounted for 71 percent of intra-Belgian flights last year, compared to 55 percent in 2019.
Exceptions
The proposal provides for exceptions for emergencies, disasters, rescue operations, police or military missions, fact-finding missions, surveillance missions, maintenance, training and reasons related to weather or other exceptional circumstances. The ban also means the end of domestic flight advertising, which is expressly excluded from the list of exceptions.
According to Gilkinet, short-haul flights are both environmentally and economically detrimental. “By tackling them on our territory, Belgium shows the way,” says the minister. “The Belgian presidency of the Council of the European Union is also a good time to shift up a gear with other member states and to call on the European Commission to take its responsibility,” it sounds.
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