Quote:
Neighborhood committees around Zaventem international airport on the northern edge of Brussels claim the noise from more night flights would balloon the state's medical bill by euro250 million (US$304 million) annually and lead to hundreds of deaths through depression and heart disease.
Unquote.
Hundreds of deads through depression? And heart disease? Yes, quite. And pigs really can fly too!
Back to reality.
DHL will establish a superhub in LEJ; that is not even a "if". Vatry is a smokecover. DHL is owned by a German company. The German government will go to great lenghts to create more jobs in the east. The EU will offer support for development in Eastern Germany under the developing regions programme. The German government will foot the bill for a second runway in LEJ (with EU support of course), as well as road and rail links. It is even rumoured that the German government will pay the re-location costs. It is as close to a no-brainer as possible.
The question is whether BRU will remain as the DHL headquaters, and whether BRU or CGN hub will be either closed or scaled down. LEJ will be conviently placed for the biggest potential growth market in Europe, namely the new EU countries. BRU and CGN are only 200 km apart, and with a true superhub in continental Europe, both will not be needed to cover for each other in times of operational difficulty (i.e. when the BRU workers go on strike).
My guess is, that if the Belgian government don't send a positive answer right soon, DHL is gone. However, if DHL management goes on record saying something like "political decisions have made future expansion impossible and we are therefore forced to review or options" then all hell breaks loose with the unions and strikes are inevitable. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Someday they'll have to take the figth, my guess is that they'll hold it off as long as possible and ideally (from their point of view) not before LEJ has opened.
I would not be surprised if, back in the post tower in Bonn, there is a project going under the title of "LEJ 2010".
By the way, DHL and UPS have a commitment from CGN airport that no night curfews will be introduced before 2015. See the picture?