Brussels Airport handled a total of 24.4 million passengers in 2025, representing an increase of 3.3% compared to 2024. However, that growth fell short of expectations due to seven national strike actions, which resulted in around 2,400 cancelled flights and an estimated loss of 275,000 passengers. Without these strikes, passenger growth at the airport would have been significantly stronger.
Despite the disruption, Brussels Airport continued to expand its network. Passenger traffic was mainly driven by leisure travel and visits to friends and family, while the airport added six new passenger destinations and welcomed three new airlines: Cathay Pacific, Air Senegal and Smartwings.
Long-haul connectivity was further strengthened with the launch or resumption of new intercontinental routes to Atlanta (Delta Air Lines), Chongqing (Hainan Airlines) and Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific). On the short- and medium-haul network, new destinations included Bordeaux (easyJet), Larnaca (Aegean) and Scandinavian Mountains Airport (TUI fly). Transfer passengers accounted for 14% of departing traffic, particularly between Europe, Africa and North America, underlining Brussels Airport’s role as an important Star Alliance hub.
The top ten destination countries by passenger numbers in 2025 were Spain, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Morocco, Greece, Portugal, France, the United States and Switzerland.
While passenger growth was curtailed by strike action, cargo operations delivered a strong performance. Brussels Airport processed a total of 795,000 tonnes of cargo in 2025, up 8.5% compared to 2024. Air cargo volumes increased even more sharply, by 11.5%, supported by the expansion of long-haul passenger services and new intercontinental routes. Express services recorded a significant increase of 22.3%, while full-freighter volumes grew slightly (+0.8%). Trucked cargo, however, declined by 6.7%.
Commenting on the results, Brussels Airport CEO Arnaud Feist said: “2025 was a year of continued growth, a stronger network and the launch of the first phase of Hub 3.0, our major investment project aimed at improving the passenger experience. Despite challenges such as national strikes and a cyber incident at one of our suppliers, we remained focused on our core mission of connecting people, businesses and communities, both for passenger and cargo traffic.”
The total number of flight movements increased by 2.8% year-on-year to 198,000 in 2025. Passenger flights rose by 2.4%, while the average number of passengers per flight reached a new record of 145. Cargo flights increased by 2.2%. Night operations remained within legal limits, with 15,938 commercial night movements, fewer than in 2024.
In December 2025, Brussels Airport welcomed 1.84 million passengers, up 3.9% compared to December 2024, driven by the busy start of the Christmas holiday period. Cargo volumes, however, declined by 6.6% year-on-year to 65,000 tonnes, mainly due to lower full-freighter and belly cargo volumes.
Overall, 2025 confirmed Brussels Airport’s continued growth and network development, while also highlighting the significant impact national strike action can have on passenger traffic.
This post was published on 14 January 2026 08:32
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