3.7% more passengers and 2% fewer flights at Brussels Airport in January

During the month of January, more than 1.7 million passengers passed through Brussels Airport, an increase of 3.7% compared to January 2019. Freight transport decreased by 10.5% compared to the same month last year. The number of flights fell by 2%.

Passengers

In January, 1,725,155 passengers passed through Brussels Airport, an increase of 3.7% on January 2019. The number of originating passengers increased by 3.6%, while the number of transfer passengers grew by 4.5%, which strengthens Brussels Airport’s position as a major Star Alliance hub. The January 2019 figures were negatively impacted by the heavy snowfall in late January 2019.

The bankruptcy of Thomas Cook at the end of 2019 had little impact this winter, with many passengers having found other travel alternatives.

The outbreak of the coronavirus did not have a significant impact on the number of passengers for China in January.

Long-haul traffic continued to grow significantly by 7.4 % in January. The strongest growth was observed at Emirates, Ethiopian, Brussels Airlines, United Airlines, Qatar Airways, Thai Airways International and Air Canada.

In the short- and medium-haul segments, the most significant growth was recorded at Brussels Airlines, Ryanair, easyJet, Iberia, TAP Air Portugal, SAS and LOT Polish Airlines.

Cargo

Freight transport at Brussels Airport fell by 10.5% in January 2020 compared to January 2019. The negative trend over recent months continued, in line with trends in Europe and the rest of the world.

Full cargo continued to decline (-16%) due to the slowing economic growth. Belly cargo dropped by 10.2%, also due mainly to the decrease in transport from Asia. Express services have continued to recover in recent months and recorded a slight increase (+0.7%) in January.

Flights

The total number of flight movements fell by 2% in January 2020 compared to January 2019. The number of passenger flights fell by 2.6%, in particular following the bankruptcies of Adria Airways, fly bmi and WOW Air in 2019. The average number of passengers per flight went up by 6.2% from 113 in January 2019 to 120 in January 2020.