Brussels’ cargo traffic continues to recover after March attacks
19 / 05 / 2016
Cargo traffic at Brussels airport continued to recover in April after the terrorist attacks in March.
The airport said that in April cargo volumes were down 4.8% year on year to 39,129 tons as passenger operations were closed until April 3 and took a while longer to fully recover after that date.
“In the course of April, flights to most destinations were resumed and Brussels Airport saw the belly cargo volume increase week by week,” the airport said.
In total, belly cargo in April was 39.2% behind a year earlier at 7,411 tons.
Freighter operations at the airport resumed on March 24 and this segment even received a boost with Ethiopian Airlines Cargo resuming services in late March after it was awarded traffic rights that allowed it to fly from Brussels to destinations in the Middle East and Asia.
The airline had switched airports when it had temporary rights allowing it to conduct the flights removed.
The return of Ethiopian’s freighter services saw volumes increase by 9.7% year on year to 31,718 tons, with full-freighter traffic by 19.1% and integrator demand growing by 2.7%.