Brussels Airport: slight decrease in passenger numbers and cargo volume in October

Passengers

In October Brussels Airport welcomed 1,648,000 passengers, 1.6% down on the same month last year. This minor decrease is explained by the announced rationalisation on the intra-European network operated by Brussels Airlines, the slightly disappointing traffic figures during the autumn mid-term holidays and the impact of hurricane Sandy, which caused 18 transatlantic flights to be cancelled. Contrary to the downward trend, we record a general growth in intercontinental traffic, especially on the routes operated by Brussels Airlines and other Star Alliance carriers. The low-fare segment too continues to grow strongly.

Movements

The number of aircraft movements in October amounts to 19,900, a decrease of 3.5% on pcp. We again find that the number of flights increases at a slower pace or decreases more rapidly than the number of passengers. The growing average number of passengers per flight is explained by a better load factor and the use of larger planes.

Cargo

With 36.346 tonnes carried, cargo traffic is down by 12,9 % on October last year. For the whole year till now, traffic volumes remained about the same as last year’s, and with this result Brussels Airport performs better than most European airports. The impact of the recession in cargo traffic to and from Europe is now also being felt in the full-cargo segment at our airport. Still, belly cargo (cargo carried on board of passenger aircraft) continues to grow and integrator traffic too is doing relatively well.

New routes

At the end of October Brussels Airlines launched a new service to Edinburgh, easyJet now operates the Brussels Airport – Basel route and Thomas Cook has opened a new route to the Cape Verde Islands. On 3 December, Air Europa will start operating two daily flights to Madrid. Demavia / Fly Congo launched a direct full-cargo service to Luanda en Kinshasa.

For the second half of the winter season, we can announce a fourth weekly flight to Bangkok by Thai Airways and a sixth and seventh weekly flight to Doha by Qatar Airways.