Since July, tour operator Tui has operated five flights from Antwerp-Deurne airport to Spanish destinations, with a stopover at Brussels International Airport, Zaventem. The planes had to refuel, resulting in significant additional CO2 emissions, the Mediahuis newspapers reported on Saturday.
The stopover was not intended to board passengers, but to refuel the aircraft. Which is surprising because the aircraft, Embraer 190 or 195, are quite capable of flying directly to Spain.
Stopovers took place on five flights in all, to Alicante, Malaga and Ibiza.
The spokesperson for Tui Belgium, Piet Demeyere, explains that it is a combination of circumstances. “If the take-off runway in Antwerp is wet, certain weight checks must be carried out for safety. In general, the weight in Antwerp is correct and the runway can support it, but, for example, during a full flight with luggage, the weight at take-off must be reduced. This cannot be done by refusing passengers. From then on, we take on less fuel in Antwerp to take off in safety all the same and refuel in Brussels to arrive as far as Spain”.
In Zaventem, the starting weight is not a constraint because the track is much longer than in Antwerp. However, the stopover in question also suggests that planes consume more fuel.
Inge Mayeres from the research office Transport & Mobility Leuven has calculated via a tool from the European Environment Agency that an additional landing and take-off cycle with these devices generates 2,050 kg more CO2 emissions. For a direct flight between Antwerp and Alicante, the total emissions are around 13,265 kg of CO2.
