Brussels Airport welcomed 2.58 million passengers in July 2026, an increase of 2.8% compared with July 2025 and its highest monthly passenger total since 2019.
The busiest day was 20 July, when more than 92,000 passengers passed through the airport, also making it the busiest day of 2026 so far. Brussels Airport attributed the peak to the traditional summer holiday rush, the construction industry holiday period, returning visitors from the two Tomorrowland weekends and traffic associated with the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.
An average of around 84,000 passengers per day used the airport during July, compared with approximately 70,000 on a typical day outside the summer holiday period.
Traffic remained strong despite continuing disruption linked to the situation in the Middle East, including the suspension of flights to Tel Aviv. Growth was also supported by Transavia stationing a fourth aircraft at Brussels Airport, allowing the airline to increase frequencies to Mediterranean destinations.
The most popular countries for passengers in July were Spain, Italy, Greece, Türkiye and Morocco, followed by Germany, Portugal, France, the United States and Switzerland. Transfer passengers represented 11% of departing travellers.
Cargo performance was weaker. Total freight volumes declined 3.2% to 66,612 tonnes, mainly due to a 15.2% fall in trucked air cargo. Air cargo itself decreased 1.3%, with express traffic down 12.4%. In contrast, full-freighter cargo increased 6.6% and belly cargo rose 11.4%.
Commercial aircraft movements increased by 1.1% year-on-year. Passenger flight movements grew 2.5%, while cargo flights declined 6.9%.
Passenger aircraft carried an average of 152 travellers per flight, broadly unchanged from July 2025.