Flown cargo on the up at Brussels in April

In April, Brussels Airport saw flown cargo volumes increase slightly by nearly 1% compared to the same month of 2022, reaching 51,747 tons.

However, total cargo volumes handled fell by 7.3% compared to April 2022, to a figure of 60,972 tons. The decline was primarily due to a drop of nearly 36% in trucked cargo (to 9,725 tons).

In terms of flown airfreight, the full freighter segment of Brussels’ cargo operation continued to grow, by nearly 8% year on year in April to 20,991 tons.

Bellyhold cargo carried on board passenger aircraft decreased by almost 6%.

There was also a decline of 2.6% in the express cargo (integrator) contribution of airfreight traffic.

Breaking down traffic by imports and exports, the main import regions were Asia (up 20% year on year in April), Africa (down 14% compared to April 2022) and North America (up 1% year on year).

In terms of exports, Asia once again demonstrated the strongest growth (up 27% year on year), while the North American market remained stable (up 0.2%) and imports from Africa fell slightly (down 1% compared to April 2022).

In terms of flight movements, the number of cargo flights as a whole decreased by nearly 4% compared to April 2022, Brussels Airport reported.

Over the January to April period, Brussels Airport handled a total of 238,117 tons of cargo, down by 7.3% over the same period of 2022.

The trucked cargo component was down 24.5% year on year to 40,340 tons, the flown cargo component down 2.8% to 197,777 tons.