Best summer ever for Brussels Airport

Brussels Airport enjoyed its best summer season ever this year, carrying 4.9 million passengers in July and August – 5.1% more than last year, management has announced.

The airport started July on a high note, with growth in the first six months of the year up 10% on the same period in 2014. By the end of July it had handled a record number of passengers: 2.5 million, an increase of 6.3% on 2014, and an average of about 80,000 people a day. The airport attributed the growth to the increase in the number of flights, transfer passengers and cargo.

Transfers went up spectacularly, by nearly 17%, thanks to the addition of 14 new connections.

In August, the airport handled 2.4 million passengers, 4.1% more than in 2014, with transfer passengers up 13.2% and cargo up by 6.2%. The results were due to the arrival of four new cargo companies: Ethiopian Airways, Qatar Cargo, Yangtze River Express and KF Aerospace.

In related news, Brussels Airlines saw a seat occupancy rate in August of nearly 84%, the highest in the airline’s 13-year history. The number of passengers carried was up 12.5% to more than 700,000.

Photo: Ad Meskens/Wikimedia