Belgian court ends long-running Antwerp Airport runway dispute

Belgium's highest court has rejected an appeal by the action group Verlenging Nooit and several local residents, ending a legal dispute over the runway and safety area at Antwerp Airport that ran for more than a decade. Earlier acquittals of the Flemish Region and LOM Vlaanderen stand.

At issue was whether the runway had effectively been lengthened when a tunnel was built for the adjacent Krijgsbaan (R11), and whether the paved or used area beyond the runway end, the Runway End Safety Area, was unlawful.

The R11 was tunnelled alongside the airport in 2016. The work created an obstacle-free safety area past the runway end; before it, road traffic on the Krijgsbaan had to be halted whenever aircraft took off or landed in certain directions. The airport states the runway itself remained 1,510 metres long, and that the renovation carried out in 2022 neither extended nor widened it.

Verlenging Nooit and several residents opened the first criminal case in 2019. Those defendants were acquitted in November 2020. A separate matter concerning alleged unlawful use of the safety area was dismissed in February 2024, and an appeal court upheld the relevant rulings on 28 January 2026.