Last month over 1.8 million passengers travelled via Brussels Airport. This is an increase of 5.1% compared to the same month last year. Cargo transport in November recorded a 9.4% growth on November 2016.
Passengers
Last month Brussels Airport welcomed 1,832,584 passengers; a 5.1% increase on November last year. The number of originating passengers grew by 3.8% and the number of transfer passengers by 14.0% compared to November 2016.
These growth figures can be explained, among other things, by the increase in the average payload factor for most airlines. At Brussels Airlines, both intra-European and long-haul flights had a successful month in November. Growth can also be attributed in part to the twice-daily Emirates service to Dubai, the new Hainan Airlines flight to Shanghai and the return of Delta Air Lines’ service to Atlanta.
Cargo
In contrast to the previous two months, cargo transport records strong growth in November compared to the same month last year (+9.4%). This can mainly be explained by the growing volumes of belly cargo (+30.3%) due to the extra long-haul flights operated by Emirates and Hainan Airlines, among others.
In November, the full-freighter segment again recorded negative growth (-3.5%). However, the decrease is less significant than in previous months. This is due to the fact that several flights were moved from Schiphol to Brussels Airport since Amsterdam airport reached its maximum flight limit.
With an increase of 8.9% on November 2016, integrator services too record strong growth, confirming a worldwide trend which has been noticeable for several years now and is constantly on the up.
The 24% rise in exports also stands out. Exports to Asia in particular rose sharply. More than half of the total export volume from Brussels is shipped to this continent.
Flight movements
The number of flight movements remains quite stable with a 0.2% increase compared to November last year. The number of passenger flights decreased by 1.4% over the past month. The average number of passengers per aircraft rose by 6.3% from 111 in November 2016 to 118 in November this year.
