It sure has been a busy airport week. Here are our chosen headlines in this week’s overview:
- Chaos at Belgium Airports
- EU takes Germany to court over airport security controls
- Dallas’ Airport sinkhole
- Landscape solution reducing airport noise
Our first article, published through Yahoo!, probably had the biggest travellers’ impact of any of the airport related ‘delay’ news we found this week: Chaos hit Belgian airports on Wednesday when an electrical failure at air traffic control in Brussels caused Belgium-bound flights to be diverted, with departures delayed and flights cancelled over six hours. No plane was allowed to land or take off from Belgian airports between 0730 GMT and 1200 GMT because of the power outage that paralysed screens and radars at Belgocontrol air traffic control. Officials said 147 flights were cancelled at Brussels international airport (BRU), affecting 20,000 people, including 4,000 who had to land at airports in neighbouring France, Germany and Luxembourg. For the next article we’re staying in Europe. Reuters reported on Thursday that the European Commission is taking Germany to the European Court of Justice for failing to adequately monitor security measures at some German airports, the European Union’s executive body said on Thursday. “Inspections by the Commission have shown that Germany does not comply with the minimum frequency and the scope of controls required under EU legislation,” it said in a statement. The Commission also said, however, that the move did “by no means” imply that German airport security was inadequate. “The Commission’s concerns relate to the way Germany exercises the controls required under EU legislation”, it said. A spokeswoman at the interior ministry in Berlin said the accusations were related to security measures at German airports in 2012. And now we’re moving across the big pond to the United States for our next article. USA Today reported that Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) has reopened a runway that it closed earlier Tuesday due to reports of a sinkhole nearby. The closure appeared to cause some disruptions late Tuesday afternoon. An airport spokesman says workers discovered that the 25-foot by 25-foot (7.6 x 7.6m) sinkhole was caused by a storm drain. Then on Friday the Dallas Business Journal reported that another sinkhole has opened on airport property, although the second one isn’t causing any runway closures or otherwise affecting flights. And to finish the week off something very innovative from the Dutch. The article was originally passed us via Slashdot but seems to have been published on Smithsonian.com. We’re talking about a maze-like landscaping that has cut the decibel level of the ambient noise at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport (AMS) in half. Brilliant idea if you ask us! Here’s a photo from the solution near Schiphol (image from Schiphol Group via Smithsonia.com). 
That’s all for this week, see you in 2 weeks as we’re taking a break next week. Safe travels! [Photo Credit: Luc Van Braekel via Compfight cc]