Brussels Airport passenger numbers up 3% in January

In January 2012, Brussels Airport welcomed 1,155,000 passengers, an increase of 3% on the same month last year. The fact that the economy is declining is reflected in the number of originating passengers who start their trip at Brussels Airport: in this segment, we record a decrease of 0.6% compared to last year. Transfer traffic on the other hand continues to grow firmly with 24%, driven by the development of Star Alliance at Brussels Airport and a stronger economic growth outside of Europe.  In the current economic situation this transfer growth is an important leverage for the network served from Brussels Airport and for the international accessibility of our country. The traffic segments recording the strongest growth are once again the Brussels Airlines network and the long haul segment.

The impact of the national strike of 30 January was limited to 10% of the flights and to about 0.3% of the growth in the month of January.

In January, cargo traffic decreased by 4.2% under the influence of a worldwide cargo market in decline. The strongest decrease was recorded in the full freight segment, which in spite of the expansion of the activities of Saudi Cargo, Singapore Airlines, Korean Air and EVA Airways dropped by 4.6%. Belly cargo (cargo carried on board of passenger aircraft) decreased by 3.3%.

In January, Brussels Airport recorded 16,227 flights, down 6.5% on last year. The decline occurred mainly during the holiday period in the first half of January.