Brussels sees long-haul growth thanks to Jet Airways and US carriers

Located just 11 kilometres from the city centre, Brussels Airport at Zaventem serves as the main airport for all the politicians involved in running the European Union. Traffic at the airport has been growing steadily for the last six years though passenger numbers at the airport have yet to reach the peak of 2000 when Sabena, the failed national carrier was in its heyday. Between 1991 and 2000 traffic had grown by 160% as Sabena established a major hub-and-spoke network at the airport. The airline’s ill-fated involvement with Swissair resulted in the airline’s collapse in November 2001.
The airline’s successor, SN Brussels Airlines, merged with local low-cost rival Virgin Express in 2006/07 to create Brussels Airlines which operates a fleet of some 45 aircraft (only half as many as Sabena at its peak). This summer the airline will serve some 57 destinations non-stop from the airport, while several other destinations are served with an intermediate stop.
As at most major European airports passenger numbers have been down in the first four months of 2009. At present traffic levels are similar to those achieved in 2006. The seasonality profile is typical of many European airports with a peak in July and demand being lowest in December and January.
While Brussels Airlines is clearly the airport’s leading airline the next biggest carriers in terms of passenger numbers are primarily charter airlines. Jetairfly (TUI’s Belgium subsidiary) with 12 based aircraft and Thomas Cook Airlines with six based aircraft are the next biggest airlines. Lufthansa ranks fourth (serving seven destinations in Germany and Milan Malpensa with its new Lufthansa Italia subsidiary) while Jet Airways of India ranks fifth.
Jet has created a ‘scissor-hub’ at Brussels with daily flights arriving from India (Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai) and flying across the Atlantic to Newark, New York JFK and Toronto. All routes are operated with 226-seat A330s which are all scheduled to arrive in Brussels at 07:50 in the morning. All six aircraft then depart at just after 10:00 allowing a good two hours for connections between flights to be made. A fourth Indian connection to Bangalore was started at the end of October but was abandoned in mid-January. All of these flights helped Brussels’ ‘Overseas’ traffic to grow by over 25% in 2008.
22/05/09 Airline Network News and Analysis

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Categories: Airports May 2009, Foreign May 2009, Jet Airways May 2009