No fewer than 22.2 million passengers travelled through Brussels Airport in 2023, up 17% on 2022. Cargo volumes on the other hand decreased by 10%, totalling 701,000 tonnes.
In December Brussels Airport welcomed 1,596,443 passengers, bringing the total for 2023 to 22,200,755 passengers. This is an increase of 17% compared to 2022 (18.9 million passengers) and 84% of the number of passengers of record year 2019 (26.4 million passengers).
After the Covid pandemic, we continue to do better year-on-year. After doubling passenger numbers in 2022, we recorded a further 17% growth in 2023.
The leisure segment, both holiday traffic and visits to friends and relatives, almost fully recovered. Business travel too shows a clear recovery, but growth is tempered by more teleconferences, pursuit of cost savings and efficiency and increasing environmental awareness, affecting short-haul business trips in particular. Travel to and from Asia has also not yet fully recovered. Since October, the cancellation of flights to Israel has also had an impact.
The number of transfer passengers grew by 21% to 15% of all passengers, showing a very clear recovery of hub activity, with Brussels Airport as a major Star Alliance hub in Europe.
Cargo: 6% drop in flown cargo compared to 2022
In 2023 the total cargo volume amounted to 700,846 tonnes, or a 10% decrease compared to 2022. Flown air cargo dropped by 6%, in line with the global trend. However, with this result, Brussels Airport does outperform competing European airports.
The full freighter segment is down 11% from 2022. Belly cargo increased by 4.5% given the continued recovery of passenger flights. Finally, the express services recorded a 6% decline compared to 2022. Overall, global freight volumes were under pressure throughout the year due to the ongoing geopolitical situation.
Flights
In December we recorded 14,415 flight movements. This brings the total for 2023 to 192,257, an increase of 7% on 2022.
However, this number remains 18% lower than in 2019. The number of passenger flights increased by 12% compared to 2022. The number of passengers per flight is up from 135 to a new record of 141, due to the use of larger aircraft and an ever-increasing load factor. The number of cargo flights is down 8% compared to 2022.
There were 16,284 commercial flight movements during the night (between 11pm and 6am) in 2023, which is lower than in 2022 (16,616 commercial night flight movements).
In 2023, the slot coordinator allocated 15,733 night slots, which complies with the legal limit of 16,000 night slots. There are often operational reasons for night flights without night slots, such as delays or operational problems.
More detailed figures are available in our press release.