Brussels Airport registers 41% YoY air cargo volumes growth in March

In March, Brussels Airport registered the YoY growth in air cargo volumes by 41 percent, reaching 74,000 tonnes, compared to March 2020 and 27 percent compared to March 2019.

The growth in volumes in March was achieved despite the sharp drop in volumes on passenger flights (-41 percent). Full cargo traffic grew strongly again (+73 percent), and this growth could be observed for all existing airlines. The growth in express services (+65 percent) is due to the effect observed in 2021 of the extra routes added by DHL Express in 2020 and the increase in demand for e-commerce shipments. Trucked freight is also up by 43 percent.

Import and export volumes increased, especially for the Asian and North American regions. Brussels Airport also remains an important hub for the import and export of Covid vaccines.

186,924 passengers travelled via Brussels Airport, representing only 9 percent of the number of passengers March 2019, before the Covid crisis.

Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Company, said, “The last twelve months have been particularly difficult for the airline industry; the few periods of cautious recovery have always been short-lived, and now we are always faced with a ban on non-essential travel.”

The total number of flight movements fell by 71 percent in March 2021 compared to the pre-crisis period (2019), adding up to 5,177 movements (compared with 18,126 in March 2019). The number of passenger flights fell by 86 percent. Each flight carried an average of 89 passengers.

The number of cargo flights was up by 46 percent compared to last year (2020) mainly due to the large number of flights operated using passenger aircraft that are used only for cargo.