Ostend-Bruges Airport traffic figures July 2019: +2.8%

Comparison between July 2019 en July 2018

Passengers
61,520 in July 2019 vs. 59,827 in July 2018 (+2,8%)

Movements
2,549 in July 2019 vs. 2,893 in July 2018 (-11,9%)

Freight
1,357 tonnes in July 2019 vs. 1,835 tonnes in July 2018 (-26,1%)

Smooth travel via Ostend Airport, also during the busy summer month of July

Despite the busier month of July, one can look back on nothing but satisfied passengers at Ostend Airport.

A smooth check-in, limited waiting times at security and passport control, fast handling of baggage on both departure and arrival are aspects that have contributed to achieving high customer satisfaction. The compact airport has that kind of assets in-house and travellers experience this during their departure and arrival at the airport on the coast.

In the month of July, there were 61,520 passengers. This was almost 3% more than in 2018 (59,827). The positive trend continues.

There was only a limited increase in capacity of TUI fly. With the loss of two successful destinations, Nice and Barcelona, ??one can say that the “capacity” released was used to further increase the number of seats; including Malaga (+ 41%), Palma de Mallorca (+ 33%) and Antalya (+ 30%).

It is not unimportant to mention that the new Russian airline Pobeda, subsidiary of Aeroflot, is struggling with serious capacity problems throughout Europe due to the disappearance of the Boeing 737MAX. The successful route, which was launched on March 7, to and from Moscow, was therefore suspended during the summer months for that reason.

The global number of movements fell slightly in July (-11.90%). This can be explained by a smaller share of scheduled and training flights. The number of business flights rose by 25% last month. This figure is fully in line with expectations since the opening of the new business terminal.

Cargo fell slightly more than 25% compared to July last year. This has to do with greatly reduced imports from Egypt of fruit and crops from the existing cargo companies. With the arrival of the new cargo handler, the Italian BCUBE, we expect a turn in the last quarter of this year.

The “on-time performance”, i.e. the punctuality achieved a score of 96.6% in July. This is a strong figure for European airports.