Brussels Airport welcomed 2,735,470 passengers in July, 2.7% more than during the same period last year, the airport stated in a press release on Thursday. This is the highest number in the airport's history.
Long-haul traffic increased by 4% during July, thanks to the strong growth of Emirates, Ethiopian Airlines and United Airlines. For short-haul flights, the strongest growth was shown by Brussels Airlines, Ryanair, TAP Air Portugal, Aeroflot, Lufthansa, SAS, Air Arabia, Finnair, Iberia, Vueling and airBaltic.
Freight traffic fell by 10.5%. "This decrease is noticeable in all sectors and is largely due to growing economic uncertainty, which is confirmed by the world statistics published by IATA," a spokesperson for Brussels Airport emphasised.
"Unfortunately, the first part of the summer was marked by three incidents in the baggage-handling system, one in particular on July 13 following computer problems. Brussels Airport and its partners have pulled out all the stops to limit the impact on passengers and to send luggage to the passengers concerned asap. Brussels Airport wishes to repeat its apology to them for any inconvenience caused," the spokesperson said. Last month, 2.25 million items of luggage were handled at Brussels Airport, 10,000 of which could not be immediately transported.
The Brussels Times
