In January, 1,725,155 passengers passed through Brussels Airport, an increase of 3.7% on January 2019. The number of originating passengers increased by 3.6%, while the number of transfer passengers grew by 4.5%, which strengthens Brussels Airport’s position as a major Star Alliance hub. The January 2019 figures were negatively impacted by the heavy snowfall in late January 2019.
The bankruptcy of Thomas Cook at the end of 2019 had little impact this winter, with many passengers having found other travel alternatives. The outbreak of the coronavirus did not have a significant impact on the number of passengers for China in January.
Long-haul traffic continued to grow significantly by 7.4 % in January. The strongest growth was observed at Emirates, Ethiopian, Brussels Airlines, United Airlines, Qatar Airways, Thai Airways International and Air Canada.
In the short- and medium-haul segments, the most significant growth was recorded at Brussels Airlines, Ryanair, easyJet, Iberia, TAP Air Portugal, SAS and LOT Polish Airlines.
