Record summer at Brussels Airport with almost 5 million passengers and 81,000 tons of cargo

Brussels Airport welcomed 4,903,207 passengers during the summer months of July and August, 2,424,013 of whom in August. The total number of passengers for the summer is up by 5.1% on the same period last year. Cargo at Brussels Airport rose by 13% in this period, compared with summer 2014. However, the total number of flights only increased by 1% for the entire summer.

Passengers
Brussels Airport received 2,424,013 passengers in August an increase of 4.1% compared with August last year. The number of transfer passengers in particular rose by 13.2% compared with August last year, while there was a limited rise number of travellers originating locally of 1.2%. This appears to have been influenced by the good weather in August.

The activities on runway and landing strip 25L/07R meant the airport had rather limited capacity in the first half of August, whereby the flight schedule of several airlines had been adjusted. This meant that compared with the same months last year, growth in August (4.1%) was less pronounced than in July (6.3%).

The most significant growth was recorded by Brussels Airlines, but there was also growth with flights within Europe, long-haul flights and low-cost flights.

Nearly 5 million passengers travelled through Brussels Airport during the entire summer period (July and August), an increase of 5.1% compared with summer 2014.

Cargo
Cargo transport at Brussels Airport displayed healthy growth of 8.2% in August. The full-freighter segment in particular was up sharply by around a third more cargo (+34.9%) then in August last year, thanks to new companies starting at Brussels Airport. Half of this growth is down to Ethiopian Airlines, which has been operating at the airport since January.

The transport of cargo on board passenger planes (belly transport) fell slightly by 4.4%. Almost every European airport has seen a drop in belly transport. Cargo transport in passenger planes is extremely sensitive to economic fluctuations.

Flights
The number of flight movements grew minimally by 0.7% compared with August last year. This growth is much lower than the growth in passenger numbers (+4.1%). Aircraft occupancy levels increased from 124 passengers in August last year to 128 passengers in August this year.

Brussels Airport, 9 September 2015