Brussels Airport welcomes more than 2 million pax in July 2012

With 2,054,000 passengers in July, Brussels Airport exceeded the threshold of 2 million travellers in one month for the second time in the past 10 years. Despite the fact that with this the airport recorded an absolute record month, growth compared to July 2011 remained limited to 1 percent.

The weak numbers for business traffic due to the economic crisis were compensated by an increase in the number of holiday travellers. Moreover, part of the holiday exodus this year was already on the books for June. Transfer traffic grew by 4%, and the number of O&D passengers with departure or final destination at Brussels Airport showed a slight decline, by -0.5%.

The number of aircraft movements also decreased further by -2.5% in July. This confirms the trend that has already been recorded for several years: a better average occupancy rate and the use of larger aircraft on average. 

Cargo transport showed slight growth. The increase by 3.2% was primarily fuelled by the development of cargo traffic on passenger aircraft and integrator traffic. Provisional figures show that the tonnage on full cargo aircraft has fallen by 1%. Even with this, Brussels scores better than the worldwide variation in full cargo and the results of most European airports.

Starting in November, Brussels Airlines is announcing two new destinations. There will be flights to Edinburgh 6 times per week during the winter season, with plans for further growth next summer. In addition, Mombasa is being added to the expanded African network. This last destination has been developed in collaboration with Thomas Cook. As of February 2013, Qatar Airways will increase the number of weekly flights to Doha from 5 times per week to daily.