Brussels Airport Gears Up For Busiest Day Since Pre-COVID

As nearby Paris gears up for the start of the Olympic Games, Brussels Airport (BRU) is faring with its own popularity as it faces its busiest day this year. It is also the airport’s busiest day since pre-COVID, meaning that recovery is well underway. Simple Flying was on the scene – having taken public transport to avoid the highway rush – to learn more, together with the airport’s Senior Communications Manager, Ihsane Chioua Lekhli.

90,000 passengers

School holidays in Belgium have well and truly begun, with many families taking the opportunity to travel. As such, the busiest period of the year typically lies around this date, with July 26 having the most passengers in 2024. Initial estimates placed the number of passengers traveling through the airport at 88,000, of which 45,000 departing and 43,000 arriving, per a VRT NWS report this morning. Chioua Lekhli explains:

“Well today is the busiest day of this year and the busiest day since COVID. So today we are expecting 90,000 passengers at Brussels Airport, arriving or departing. It’s really a day in the middle of the school holidays and the construction holidays, so a lot of people starting holidays and a lot of people coming home after their holidays have ended.”

It is a busy day not only for the aviation industry but also for the entire Belgian transport system, including on roads and trains. This weekend is also dubbed a “black” weekend for travel by car to the South of France, a reference to color coding for busy days on the roads. Meanwhile, on the trains, arson attacks today on the French high-speed railway system also had knock-on effects in Belgium with some delays.

Warning and additional measures

Brussels Airport issued a warning to passengers on its website with regards to the busy day ahead. The statement advises passengers to use their time calculator. Passengers need to select their flight on the website and are then given a period of time during which they should aim to arrive.

In terms of passport control, Brussels Airport also installed 15 more electronic gates for those leaving the Schengen zone, where queues typically tend to build.

Photo: Dillon Shah | Simple Flying

The airport also implemented other measures, such as making additional remote car parks around the airport, with transport to the terminal provided by free shuttle buses. Its warning states:

The car parks at Brussels Airport are currently very busy. A limited number of car park spaces are available. We expect this situation to continue for the next days.

Despite the challenging number of passengers, the airport’s check-in desks were largely well-managed and security remained efficient and quick. On social media, Brussels Airport CEO Arnaud Feist said:

“Today, we are halfway through the summer holidays and it’s the busiest day of the year: 88,000 passengers are expected at Brussels Airport. The Brussels Airport teams & community are going the extra mile to offer our passengers a seamless journey. Thank you all for your dedication and hard work!”

2019 recovery in sight

It has been a few years now since the end of the COVID pandemic, and the industry is continuing with its recovery. It took Brussels Airport quite a while to get to the point that it is today in terms of passenger numbers. It has still not reached the levels it had back in 2019, but BRU is slowly but surely getting there. Chioua Lekhli told us:

“As expected it took us a few years to get back to a higher passenger level. That was influenced by several factors. We of course had the network that had to recover, we still see that there are less options to Asia. But those are recovering as well because in December, we will have Thai Airways that will be restarted its flights at Brussels Airport and we are looking forward to that.

Photo: Vyte Klisauskaite | Simple Flying

We also see a change in behavior of business travelers. On short flights within Europe, there are other options and of course there are a lot of online options which many companies have started using since COVID. So there the behavior has changed. All of these things play a role in the fact that passenger numbers took some time to recover. We are not at the level of 2019 yet but it’s definitely a very good summer and a very busy summer ahead.

When asked what the timeline was for the full recovery and indeed additional growth, we were told:

“Next year we expect to be at about the level of 2019. Maybe not just yet but we will be getting close and we hope of course to surpass it in the years to come.”

Higher passenger numbers linked to the Olympics?

Brussels Airport’s busiest day of the year also falls on the day of the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics. Given Belgium’s proximity to France, it begs the question as to whether the higher passenger numbers are linked. As Simple Flying understands it, it is unlikely.

First and foremost, there are no direct train connections from Brussels Zaventem Airport to Paris. There are indirect connections with one or two stops, although it is unclear whether any non-Belgian passengers are taking advantage of that.

As for flights to Paris, only Brussels Airlines operates on the roundtrip Brussels to Paris sector with double daily flights to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG).

A spokesperson for the company told Simple Flying that point-to-point travel from Brussels is virtually non-existant. The flights, both operating at similar times in the morning, serve simply to feed the airline’s long-haul operation, primarily to Africa.

“During summer, all our flights to Africa are very full and as a consequence our flights to Paris as well. Therefore, we cannot really see an impact of the Olympics on our flights. As a proud Belgian flag carrier we do of course wish our teams all the best!”

It is also worth noting that the majority of the 90,000 passengers going through Brussels today are departing, not arriving.