Brussels Airport sees return of major foreign carriers

Since last week or this week, many airlines are operating from Brussels Airport again. With flights optimally spread over the available 18 hours a day, an average of 225 flights can take off and 225 flights can land every day. Given the current passenger payload of the aircraft, this comes down to the forecast of 800 departing passengers per hour in the temporary check-in structure.

The large majority of the carriers at Brussels Airport intend to start operating from Brussels Airport again this week. “The return to Brussels Airport of a large number of major international airlines is an important signal. It shows that they continue to put their trust in Brussels Airport. As airport operator, we will do everything in our power to provide them with additional capacity, in consultation with the competent authorities. However, in doing so, we have to take account of the initial flight schedule to allow airlines to organise their flights as efficiently as possible”, says Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Company.

With flights being evenly spread over the hours that are available for flight operations a flights schedule was established that takes account of the maximum check-in capacity of 800 passengers per hour. This corresponds with about 15,000 departing passengers a day. Given the average number of passengers per flight, we are talking about 225 departing flights a day compared to nearly 350 on an average day in April.

Brussels Airport Company, in consultation with the competent bodies, will examine how to rapidly increase the capacity for departing passengers. A delay for this has not been set.

Brussels Airport, 11 April 2016