Strong growth in cargo and passenger volumes for Brussels Airport in May

BRUSSELS, Belgium, 2015-6-5 — /Travel PR News/ — Brussels Airport again passes the 2 million-passenger mark in May. Cargo too records strong growth, particularly in the full-freighter segment. Due to the problems at ATC provider Belgocontrol on 27 May the number of flights decreased compared to May last year.

Passengers
In May 2015 Brussels Airport welcomed 2,152,448 passengers, up 7.7% on the corresponding month of 2014. Growth was recorded mainly in the transfer (+9.6%) and originating passenger segments. With its many holidays, the month of May also saw a rise in the number of short holiday breaks.

Growth, both in the numbers of transfer and originating passengers, can largely be attributed to Brussels Airlines due to the use of larger aircraft, new destinations and extra flights. Low cost and long haul too showed significant growth on May of last year.

In autumn All Nippon Airways will be launching a direct service to Tokyo, a major development for Brussels Airport as Star Alliance hub. Brussels Airlines will start operating a daily flight to Bremen as of September. Bremen is the 8th airport in Germany to be served from Brussels Airport.

Cargo
In May cargo traffic at Brussels Airport grew by 7.4% compared to the same month last year in contrast to other European airports where cargo volumes on average decrease.

Growth is recorded in all cargo segments at Brussels Airport, but mainly in the full-freighter segment. The past few years, this segment was hit hard both worldwide and at Brussels Airport.

Due to the arrival of several new cargo carriers including Qatar Airways, Ethiopean Cargo and the Chinese Yangtze River Express, Brussels Airport is showing strong recovery in this segment. KF Aerospace (previously Kelowna) started operating at Brussels Airport in May.

Movements
Due to the problems at ATC provider Belgocontrol on 27 May hundreds of flights had to be cancelled. As a result, the number of movements decreased slightly by 0.4% on May 2014.