During the aviation winter season that began on 27 October, two new destinations will be served from Brussels Airport: Essaouira and Tromsø, bringing the number of passenger destinations to 202. In addition, six new routes will be operated: Valencia, Seville, Catania, Kraków, Ljubljana and Berlin.
Traditionally, the winter season in aviation begins on the eve of the autumn half-term holiday. Large numbers of travellers, going on holidays, city breaks and business trips will be choosing Brussels Airport to reach their destinations. Sun or snow? Beach or mountains? Town or countryside? Passengers have a vast choice of more than 200 destinations. This choice gets even bigger this winter with the addition of two new destinations and six new routes.
New destinations
The new destinations are Essaouira (Morocco) and Tromsø (Norway). With its twice-weekly service to Essaouira, Ryanair did not only add a new destination to its own offer but also to the network served from Brussels Airport. SAS on the other hand is catering for the winter sports fans, with a weekly flight in January and February to Tromsø.
Following the collapse of flybmi, Loganair has taken over the ten weekly flights to the East Midlands, while Brussels Airlines has taken over the daily flight to Bristol (which is increased to two flights a day in the winter season) and Hanover.
New routes
Six new routes have also been scheduled. Ryanair is taking off for southern Europe, more precisely Seville (four times a week) and Catania (twice a week) as of November. The low-cost carrier is also offering passengers the opportunity to visit Kraków four times a week. EasyJet is operating a daily flight to Berlin Tegel since the start of the winter season. As of next summer, the frequency will be upped to two flights a day.
Brussels Airlines also serves two new routes. Since 4 November, the carrier flies to Ljubljana six times a week, taking over the route that was operated until the end of September by Adria Airways, that went bankrupt. From February 2020, it will also be offering flights to Valencia four times a week.
Increased capacity and frequency
Several airlines have also increased the capacity on their routes, either by using larger planes or by increasing the frequency of their flights.
Europe – As of November, Brussels Airlines is offering a fourth daily flight to Birmingham.
Asia - Thai Airways International offers a sixth weekly flight to Bangkok while Hainan Airlines is making a third weekly flight to Shenzhen.
America - Delta Air Lines is increasing the capacity of flights to Atlanta and New York by moving up from the B767–300ER to the B767–400ER (25 extra seats). Air Canada is replacing its B787-8 to Montreal with a B787-9 (47 extra seats).
Africa - TUI fly is operating a second weekly flight to Mombasa and Zanzibar, while Ethiopian Airlines is offering a daily direct flight to Addis Ababa (previously four/week).
Read here the press release.