Brussels Airport announces May 2012 traffic numbers

In May Brussels Airport welcomed a total of 1.7 million passengers, up +0.1% on the corresponding month last year. The economic situation is affecting O&D traffic, which was down 2.3% on May 2011. Transfer traffic on the contrary grew by 11.9%. The strongest growth continues to be registered in the long-haul segment. The increase in the number of transfer passengers demonstrates the growing importance of Brussels Airport as hub in the intercontinental Star Alliance network. The last two months the low-cost segment is again growing strongly.

Intra-European traffic registers a slight decrease both in the business and leisure segments. This can be explained in part by the discontinuation of the flights by Blue1 and Royal Jordanian, the bankruptcy of Malev and the continuous strike action at Iberia. These rather disappointing results are in line with the general evolution of traffic at other large European airports.  

The number of aircraft movements decreased by 6%, which in comparison to the number of passengers, indicates an on average improved payload compared to last year and the use of larger aircraft by Brussels Airlines in particular.

Although we register a slight decrease, cargo traffic continues to do well with positive performances in the segment of belly cargo on long-haul passenger flights and in the integrator segment. In these segments, Brussels Airport is outperforming most other airports.

Major new developments were the launch of a three daily low-cost service to Stuttgart by Germanwings and the opening of a first trans-Atlantic route by Brussels Airlines with a direct flight to New York JFK.