Brussels Airport: attendance up 1.8% in September

The number of passengers increased by 1.8% compared to September 2018, while the number of transfer passengers increased by 1.5% year-on-year. As the manager of the Brussels platform explains, the growth in september is unfortunately less important than expected due in particular to the bankruptcy of tour operator Thomas Cook, with negative consequences for Brussels Airlines but also for other airlines flying to Tunisia and Turkey. Also, bankruptcy of Adria Airways and therefore the stopping of flights to and from Ljubljana as well as the two days of strike at British Airways also affected the results of September 2019.

Long-haul flights were up 5.6% thanks mainly to Ethiopian Airlines, United Airlines, Emirates and ANA. For short haul flights, Ryanair, TAP Air Portugal, Vueling, Iberia, Aeroflot, Loganair, Icelandair and Finnair are the fastest growing airlines. Due to a slight 1% increase in passenger flights, the number of passengers per flight increased from 131 passengers to an average of 132 passengers per flight.

Freight
Freight transport at Brussels Airport was down 12.3% in September 2019 compared to September 2018. According to its manager, the international economic uncertainty continues to depress the freight market in Europe. Unfortunately, Brussels Airport is more marked than the other airports, due to the sharp drop in full cargo (-30.5% compared to September 2018). For their part, the express services face a smaller decline than in recent months penalized by days of strike, or 3.3%.

Cargo on board passenger flights increased slightly by 1.4%, thanks to the recovery of Brussels Airlines, which last year had a difficult month. In general, freight transport on board passenger aircraft for long-haul traffic is doing well, despite the general decline in Europe. Finally, trucked freight is down sharply by 18.6%. Both imports and exports are facing sharp declines. At the regional level, growth has only been reported from and to South America and Africa.

© Brussels Airlines