Over 18.5 million passengers used the airport in 2008: an increase of 3.6 percent on 2007 (17.8 million passengers). With this result, Brussels Airport for the second year in a row does better than most other large and medium-sized airports in Europe.

Passengers
At the start of 2008, passenger traffic registered remarkable growth rates. This strong growth was mainly driven by the success of the new long-haul services and the arrival of new low-fare carriers. However, as a result of increasing fuel prices and a slowing economy, the monthly growth gradually came to a halt reaching zero growth by September and negative growth figures in the last quarter. The average growth figure in the first three quarters was 7% whereas growth rates plummeted to minus 6% in the fourth quarter.

Cargo
In the spring of 2008 DHL moved the larger part of its activities to Germany.
The resulting growth loss of 44% in the express cargo segment was partly compensated by the cargo volumes carried on board of passenger and full-freighter flights that together showed an 11% increase on 2007. At the close of 2008 Brucargo registered 661,100 tons of cargo carried, a decrease of just over 15%. The impact of the economic recession on the cargo figures was partly compensated by the strong growth in the first two quarters.

2008 traffic figures



December 2008