Brussels Airport hails strong start to 2026
Brussels Airport had a strong start to 2026.
It welcomed more than 1.6 million passengers in January, up 5.5% compared to last year.
Cargo volumes were also up to nearly 61,500 tonnes.
The wintry weather conditions in early January didn’t severely impact the steady growth in passenger numbers.
The month saw a higher number of arriving passengers due to the end of the Christmas holidays.
Plus, several additional flights were rerouted to Brussels from Dutch airports due to severe winter weather.
From Brussels, the most popular destinations were Spain, Italy, Morocco, Germany, Turkey, Switzerland, France, the US, the UK and the UAE.
The average number of passengers per flight increased to 135, while 18% of passengers were transfer passengers, cementing its important hub status connecting Africa to North America.
Although passenger numbers were up, the volume of commercial flight movements was down very slightly by one tenth of one percent.
This reflects a more efficient use of available capacity, with improved load factors.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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