Brussels Airport announces February 2012 traffic results

Traditionally, February is the calmest month of the year in terms of passenger traffic. Still, Brussels Airport welcomed 1,177,512 passengers, an increase of 7.8% on the same month last year. This remarkable growth is partly due to the leap day of 29 February, which has an estimated impact of approximately 3.5%. The number of O&D passengers, passengers who have Brussels Airport as their originating airport or final destination, grew by 5.6%. The number of transfer passengers again recorded a remarkable growth of 22.7%, driven mainly by the activities of Brussels Airlines and the Star Alliance.

The strongest growth was once again recorded in the long-haul segment with Brussels Airlines on Africa, Jet Airways on India and other long-haul carriers. The strong growth in the leisure segment compared to February 2011 is partly explained by the spring half-term holidays, which last year started at the beginning of March.

In spite of the strong growth in passenger and cargo traffic, the number of aircraft movements decreases by 3.2%. This decrease is entirely accounted for by the use of larger aircraft types particularly by Brussels Airlines.

Contrary to the worldwide trend, cargo traffic is doing well at Brussels Airport. Brucargo registers a growth of 6.6%, partly due to a number of windfalls including the leap day and the fact that the Chinese New Year was celebrated in January instead of in February as was the case last year.

The volumes carried by full-freighters in particular are growing strongly (up 8.8%), amongst other things as a result of the additional flights operated by Singapore Airlines Cargo, Saudi Cargo Airlines, Korean Air Cargo and EVA Airways Cargo. The fact that the cargo volumes carried grow more strongly than the number of movements indicates a better aircraft payload. The volume of belly cargo (cargo carried on board of passenger aircraft) remains all but status quo compared to last year.