More than 104,000 people living in the wider vicinity of Brussels Airport in Zaventem (Flemish Brabant) have their sleep severely disrupted by planes taking off and landing. Nearly 6 out of 10 of them live in the Brussels-Capital Region according to the annual airport study on noise impact.
Over 104,000 people report their sleep is “severely disrupted” by noise from Brussels Airport
Colin Clapson
Published:
The report estimates 104,298 people were “severely sleep-disturbed” in 2025, based on the most recent population data. That represents a 2.5 percent increase compared to 2024, when the figure was approximately 101,750. By comparison, the number of nighttime flights to and from Brussels Airport—between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.—rose by 2.1 percent over the course of a year.
Most of those “severely sleep-disturbed” people live in the Brussels-Capital Region: more than 60,000 people, or 58 percent of the total. The City of Brussels (16,643), Schaarbeek (12,924), Sint-Jans-Molenbeek (10,596), and Evere (7,039) are the hardest-hit municipalities on the list. Next come the Flemish Brabant municipalities of Zaventem (6,770) and Vilvoorde (5,482).
Sharp increase in Molenbeek and Koekelberg
Last year, there was a striking increase in the number of people with “severe sleep disorders” in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek (+54 percent) and Koekelberg (+47 percent), while there was a significant decrease in Jette (-35 percent). This is mainly due to a new landing procedure (the so-called RNP) for arrivals on runway 07L, which was reintroduced last summer. Under the new procedure, aircraft are already aligned with the runway from a greater distance, flying over Molenbeek and Koekelberg. Under the previous procedure, there was a left turn, over Jette, just before landing. Runway 07L was also used more frequently last year than in 2024.
Daytime Noise Disturbance too
The number of people “severely sleep-disturbed” is calculated by combining nighttime noise pollution around Brussels Airport with calculations for sleep disturbance established by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The report also refers to “severely affected individuals,” which includes daytime noise pollution. Last year, there were 207,479 such individuals, slightly fewer than the over 209,000 counted in 2024. In 2025, there were a total of 204,147 flight movements to and from Brussels Airport, 2.8 percent more than in 2024. However, the number of flights was still nearly 13 percent lower than in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report is compiled annually by an independent research firm, aviation consultant To70.