Almost 2.6 million passengers at Brussels Airport in August

Brussels Airport has decidedly broken all records this summer with more than 5.2 million passengers in July and August 2018 versus 5 million in the summer of 2017. After the month of July with the largest number of passengers ever recorded, Brussels Airport welcomed almost 2.6 million passengers in August, up 3.4% on the same month last year. On the other hand, freight recorded a 7% increase on August 2017, in particular due to the growth in belly cargo and the full-freighter segment.

Passengers

In August this year, Brussels Airport welcomed almost 2.6 million passengers, which is 3.4% more than in August 2017. After July, it is the second time this year that Brussels Airport has welcomed more than 2.5 million passengers in a single month. This healthy growth can mainly be attributed to the success of leisure flights, in particular towards destinations such as Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia.

We also note the continued growth of long-haul traffic, which progressed by 16% compared to August 2017, principally in Asia and the Gulf region thanks to new destinations (Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Shanghai), as well as to the increase in frequency and capacity of flights to Dubai, Bangkok and Doha.

The number of originating passengers increased by 5.3% compared to the same period in the previous year. The number of transfer passengers is down by 4.8% on August 2017, due to the decrease in the number of flights by Brussels Airlines.

The growth during the second half of August has been positively influenced by the passengers leaving for the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The traffic for the month of August was, however, negatively impacted by the Ryanair strike.