Brussels Airport welcomed more than 5.3 million passengers over the two summer months of July and August, 2.6 million in August alone, up 2.6 per cent on the same period in 2018.
Taking its lead from July, August saw solid 2.6 per cent growth, welcoming over 2.6 million passengers.
The busiest day of the summer, but also of the year and in the history of Brussels Airport, was Friday 29 July with 98,076 passengers. This summer was marked by many busy days with more than 90,000 passengers, and even over 95,000 passengers on several occasions.
The strongest growth in long-haul traffic was recorded by Emirates, Ethiopian Airlines and United Airlines.
In the short-haul segment, Brussels Airlines, Ryanair, Tap Air Portugal, Aeroflot, Corendon, Finnair and airBaltic saw the strongest increase.
On a negative note, Brussels Airport said the summer holidays were marked by three incidents in the baggage handling system, each with a different cause.
In early August, baggage handling was disrupted due to a strap that became detached from a piece of baggage, which blocked the system for a few hours. Together with its partners, Brussels Airport said it worked tirelessly to dispatch the baggage that had been blocked to the passengers concerned as quickly as possible.
A total of 4.3 million pieces of luggage were handled at Brussels Airport this summer. 99.4 per cent of this luggage was handled and delivered on time, but about 26,000 pieces could not be dispatched immediately.
Brussels Airport said it regrets the inconvenience that these incidents may have caused for passengers concerned and is doing “everything possible to further increase the reliability of its baggage handling system”.
