Strong cargo growth for Brussels Airport in Q1

APR 7, 2015: 2015 started very good for Brussels Airport and its cargo community: in the first 3 months, cargo volumes were up by an impressive 9.6 percent compared to the previous year.

“Last year was already good with cargo figures increasing by a good 8 percent year on year”, said Steven Polmans, Head of Cargo, when asked for a comment. “But we are pleased to see that the start of 2014 brings even stronger growth in our volumes and that all segments contribute to this growth. Cargo volumes are up on full freighter and integrator traffic as well as well as on belly aircraft.”

“But it is not just the growth that makes us happy at the moment”, continuous Steven. “We feel a positive vibe at BRUcargo and there is a great cooperation with all stakeholders and organisations to further improve in all different fields of operations. We are making good progress in strengthening our cargo community management and we are working on many different projects closely together and in a good constructive atmosphere. Also our cargo community system in the cloud is going life at the moment, which is a challenging but promising adventure.”
Just last month, Brussels Airport announced a second wave of IATA CEIV pharma certification at BRUcargo, after very positive feedback of the first participants. A further 8 companies will join the program at Brussels, amongst them companies such as DHL Global Forwarding, Kuehne+Nagel, Panalpina and Geodis. Other companies participating are Hazgo, FB Logistics, Ninatrans and Van Dievel Transport.

Nathan De Valck, Key Account Manager at Brussels Airport, adds: “the fact that the demand came from the market to organise this second wave is very encouraging and motivating. It shows the strength and benefits of the program. From our side we will continue to work closely with the shippers and identify next steps where we as an airport can make the difference for them in further improving our position as pharma gateway in Europe.”

Being asked to look forward, Steven remains very optimistic: “the different projects we are working on will keep us busy for the moment but will also contribute in realising our targets and goals. Furthermore, in the next months, we will also see the start of some new real estate projects, both ramp side as well as second line. Add to that the new flights of Ethiopian as of mid April, the start of Yangtze River Express as of beginning April and the start of Kelowna Cargo in May, and you understand that all of us at Brussels are pretty busy and can look forward to further growth in the next months.”