In October, 1,312,809 passengers passed through Brussels Airport: down 43% on October 2019, but a clear increase compared to October 2020, when only 312,556 passengers visited the airport.
October is comparable to the last three months and is the third month this year to record over 1.3 million passengers.
Brussels Airport welcomed more departing than arriving passengers in October due to the start of the Autumn break at the end of the month.
Leisure flights, especially within Europe, were once again very successful, as were visits to family and friends abroad and second-home stays.
The Autumn break attracted many passengers who had postponed trips initially planned last summer until the autumn.
Last month’s poor weather conditions also played a role in last[1]minute bookings. Finally, business travel is gradually picking up.
The ten most popular countries in October were, in order, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Turkey, France, Greece, Morocco, Switzerland and the United States (for this last country, the effects of the reopening of the borders on 8 November for tourist travel should be felt from November).
Greece (129% of 2019 figures) and Morocco (99% of 2019 figures), in particular, are the two countries witnessing strongest growth.
The ten most popular destinations in October were Madrid, Lisbon, Barcelona, Malaga, Rome, Milan, Istanbul, Alicante, Geneva and Frankfurt.
Transfer passengers constituted 16 % of all departing passengers; this share is lower than in 2019, due to the strong recovery of originating traffic.
This last October, the total number of flight movements decreased by 33% compared to the pre-crisis period (2019).
Brussels Airport recorded 13,739 movements (compared to 20,622 in October 2019).
The number of passenger flights decreased by 43%.
The good news is that the average occupancy rate per flight was 130 passengers, almost equivalent to October 2019 levels (131 passengers).
