Brussels Airport welcomed 23.6 million passengers last year. This figure is still 10% below the airport's record year in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Passenger numbers at Belgium's largest airport, located in Zaventem, increased by 6.4% compared to 2023 to 23,610,856 passengers. This remains 10% below the nearly 26.4 million passengers who passed through the airport in 2019, its record year. It also saw an average of 144 passengers per flight – a record.
The most significant rise was in holiday traffic. "Travel to visit family and friends increased the most," a press release read. Transfer passengers accounted for 14% of all departing passengers, particularly between Europe, Africa and North America.
New destinations
Spain, Italy, Germany, Turkey and Morocco were the most popular destination countries. Brussels Airport added ten new passenger destinations to its offering in 2024.
"We strengthened our network, particularly our intercontinental network, by adding five significant new long-haul destinations," said Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport. These destinations were Bangkok, Curaçao, Nairobi, Shanghai and Singapore.
People at Brussels Airport, in Zaventem. Credit: Belga / Eric Lalmand
"This provides numerous additional opportunities for holidaymakers, people visiting family and friends, and business travellers to access large parts of the world directly from Brussels Airport." New short-haul routes include Kraków (Brussels Airlines), Bergen (Wideroe), Gazipaşa (Corendon Airlines), Bari (Transavia) and Tromsø (Norwegian).
The airport started working with five new airlines last year. Cargo traffic rose by almost 5% last year to 732,797 tonnes. Four new airlines joined on this side: LATAM Cargo, Lufthansa Cargo, Farcargo and Virgin Atlantic.
