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Airport Brussels (Belgium) - Zaventem

For the airport in Charleroi, see Brussels South Charleroi Airport.
Brussels Airport
Luchthaven Brussel-Nationaal
Aéroport de Bruxelles-National
IATA: BRU ICAO: EBBR
Summary
Airport type Public & Military
Operator The Brussels Airport Company
Serves Brussels
Location Zaventem
Hub for
Elevation AMSL 184 ft / 56 m
Coordinates 50°5405N 004°2904E / 50.90139°N 4.48444°E / 50.90139; 4.48444Coordinates: 50°5405N 004°2904E / 50.90139°N 4.48444°E / 50.90139; 4.48444
Website www.brusselsairport.be
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
02/20 2,987 9,800 Asphalt
07R/25L 3,211 10,535 Asphalt
07L/25R 3,638 11,936 Concrete
Statistics (2009)
Passengers 16,999,618
Freight (tonnes) 449,100
Aircraft movements 231,600
Sources:Belgian AIP at EUROCONTROL[1]

Brussels Airport (IATA: BRU, ICAO: EBBR) (also called Brussel Nationaal/Bruxelles-National (Brussels National)) is an international airport located in Zaventem, 6 NM (11 km; 6.9 mi) northeast[1] of Brussels, Belgium.

The airport is home to around 260 companies, together directly employing 6,000 people.

In 2005, the airport was awarded Best Airport in Europe by Airports Council International/International Air Transport Association (ACI/IATA), based on a survey conducted with over 100,000 passengers worldwide.

The airport received an official name on 19 October 2006: Brussels Airport, Welcome to Europe. According to the airport operator, its main characteristics are: European, Welcoming and Efficient.

The company operating the airport is known as "The Brussels Airport Company N.V./S.A."; before 19 October 2006, the name was BIAC (Brussels International Airport Company).

Contents

History

The origins of Brussels Airport at Zaventem date back to 1940, when the German occupying force laid claim to 600 ha (1,500 acres) of agricultural fields to the east of Brussels, near the Belgian military back-up airfield "Steenokkerzeel". The Germans constructed 3 runways in the shape of a triangle: runway 02/20 and 07L/25R which are still in use today, and runway 12/30. The airfield buildings however were constructed within the territory of the nearby municipality of Melsbroek and not of Zaventem, which is why the airfield was known to the locals as the airfield of Melsbroek, or "Fliegerhorst Melsbroek" to the Germans. There is an urban legend that the site of the airport was chosen by the Germans after asking locals where to build it - the Belgians then pointed to this location as it was often foggy.

After the liberation (3 September 1944), the German infrastructure at Melsbroek fell into the hands of the British. When the old civilian airport in Haren became too small, the Belgian authorities decided to use the aerodrome at Melsbroek for the new national airport. By 1948, a new terminal building was constructed to replace the old wooden building. In the same year, the length of both runways 02/20 and 07L/25R were increased to 1,200 m (3,900 ft) and 2,450 m (8,000 ft) respectively, whereas 12/30 remained at 1,300 m (4,300 ft). The civil aerodrome of Melsbroek was officially opened by Prince Charles, Count of Flanders, the Prince Regent on 20 July 1948. From 1948 to 1956 many more buildings and facilities were erected, but almost always on the Melsbroek side of the site.

In 1955, a train line connecting the city centre of Brussels with the airport was constructed. The line was officially opened by King Baudouin on 15 May 1955. A direct train link with Leuven and Liège was opened on 12 December 2005.

In 1956 a new 2,300 m (7,500 ft) runway was constructed, the 07R/25L which runs parallel with 07L/25R. The runway is still in use today and saw its length later increased to 3,200 m (10,000 ft). In April 1956 the Belgian government decided to build a new airport, using the same runways, but with the buildings located within the territory of the municipality of Zaventem. In April 1957, construction started of the new terminal, preparing the airport for the 1958 World Fair. The grass runway 12/30 had to make way to allow for the new passenger terminal. This new airport was inaugurated 5 July 1958, almost just in time for the 1958 World Fair. So historically, the birth date of Zaventem Airport is 5 July 1958. Incidentally, the buildings on the Melsbroek side are still in use by the Belgian Air Force (15th Air Transport Wing), and is still known as Melsbroek airfield. Both Zaventem Airport and Melsbroek Air Base, the military airfield, share the same runways.

During the boom of commercial aviation in the 1960s and 1970s, several hangars were constructed. A new cargo terminal was constructed in 1976. In 1994, a brand new terminal was constructed adjacent to the old 1958 building. Two old piers were torn down and replaced by modern ones. In 2002, amidst the turmoil engulfing the demise of the national airline Sabena, a new pier was opened. This Pier A is destined to support flights from and to the Schengen treaty countries and supports since the 15th of October 2008 all flights to African destinions (at the T-gates).

The airport is operated by The Brussels Airport Company, owned by the Australian group MAp Airports (75%) and the Belgian State (25%). The company president is Luc Van den Bossche (former Belgian government minister). CEO is Arnaud Feist.

Brussels airport currently consists of 54 contact gates, and a total of 109 gates.

In 2007, the airport served 17.8 million passengers, an increase of 7% over 2006. The cargo volume in the same year amounted to 780,000 tonnes, an increase of 8.9% over 2006. In 2008, the airport served 18,5 million passengers, which was an increase of 3,7% over the previous year.[2]

Sabena's demise meant a sharp fall in passenger traffic, a blow the airport only slowly recovered from. The airport's future is threatened by disagreement between the governments of Flanders and the Brussels Capital Region concerning nocturnal air traffic routes.

Brussels Airport is operated by The Brussels Airport Company, formerly known as BIAC (Brussels International Airport Company), which was created by Belgian law through a merger of BATC with the ground operations departments of the RLW/RVA.

The construction of a new low-cost airlines pier is currently on hold. It will be built roughly where the old south pier used to be. At present, several low-cost airlines including Ryanair and Wizz Air fly to "Brussels South Airport", actually located in Charleroi, 40 km (25 mi) away from Brussels.[3]

In March 2009, the old mechanical Flight information display system were replaced by electronic ones. [4]

In September 2009, CEO Wilfried Van Assche resigned. One of the (unofficial) reasons is the delay of the construction of the lowcostterminal and the possible lawsuit by 52 airlines active at Brussels Airport, because of the tax-discrimination. In February 2010 Arnaud Feist was appointed CEO.

Airlines and destinations

Scheduled
Airlines Destinations Pier
Adria Airways Ljubljana A
Aegean Airlines Athens A
Aer Lingus Dublin B
Aeroflot Moscow-Sheremetyevo B
Afriqiyah Airways Tripoli B
Air Algérie Algiers, Oran [seasonal] B
Air Canada Montreal-Trudeau [begins 13 June], Toronto-Pearson [begins 13 June] B
Air France operated by Régional Lyon A
Air Malta Malta A
Air Transat Montreal-Trudeau [seasonal] B
AirBaltic Riga A
Alitalia Rome-Fiumicino A
Alitalia operated by Air One Milan-Linate, Rome-Fiumicino A
American Airlines Boston [ends 28 March], Chicago-O'Hare, London-Heathrow [seasonal], New York-JFK B
Atlas Blue Al Hoceima [seasonal], Marrakech, Nador, Oujda, Rabat [begins 29 June], Tangier B
Austrian Airlines Vienna A
Austrian operated by Tyrolean Airways Vienna A
Blue Air Bucharest-Bneasa, Constana B
Blue1 Helsinki [resumes 28 March] A
BMI operated by BMI Regional East Midlands, Edinburgh, Leeds/Bradford B
British Airways London-Heathrow B
British Airways operated by Sun Air of Scandinavia Billund A
Brussels Airlines Athens, Barcelona, Berlin-Tegel, Bilbao, Bologna, Budapest, Catania, Copenhagen, Faro, Florence, Frankfurt [ends 27 March], Gothenburg-Landvetter, Geneva, Hamburg, Kraków, Lisbon, Lyon, Madrid, Málaga, Marseille, Milan-Linate, Milan-Malpensa, Naples, Nice, Oslo-Gardermoen, Palermo, Palma de Mallorca, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Porto, Prague, Rome-Fiumicino, Seville, Stockholm-Bromma, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Turin, Venice-Marco Polo, Vienna, Vilnius, Warsaw A
Brussels Airlines Abidjan, Accra [begins 5 July], Banjul, Birmingham, Bujumbura, Conakry, Cotonou [begins 6 July], Douala, Dakar, Entebbe, Freetown, London-Heathrow, Kigali, Kinshasa, Lomé [begins 9 July], Luanda, Manchester, Monrovia, Moscow-Domodedovo, Nairobi, Ouagadougou [begins 8 July], Tel Aviv, Yaoundé B
Brussels Airlines operated by BMI Regional Bristol, Newcastle upon Tyne B
Bulgaria Air Sofia B
Continental Airlines Newark B
Croatia Airlines Split [seasonal], Zagreb B
Cyprus Airways Larnaca B
Czech Airlines Prague A
DanubeWings Bratislava, Poprad A
Delta Air Lines Atlanta, New York-JFK B
EasyJet Berlin-Schönefeld, Lyon, Milan-Malpensa, Nice A
EasyJet Switzerland Geneva A
EgyptAir Cairo, Luxor [ends 24 April] B
El Al Tel Aviv B
Estonian Air Tallinn A
Ethiopian Airlines Addis Ababa B
Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi B
Finnair Helsinki A
Flybe Manchester, Southampton B
Hainan Airlines Beijing-Capital, Shanghai-Pudong [begins 28 May] B
Iberia Airlines Madrid A
Iberia operated by Air Nostrum Asturias A
Icelandair Rekjavík-Keflavík [begins 4 June] B
Jat Airways Amsterdam, Belgrade B
Jet Airways Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, New York-JFK, Newark, Toronto-Pearson B
Jet4you Tangier B
Jetairfly Ajaccio, Alicante, Almería, Araxos, Athens [begins 2 April], Bastia, Burgas, Brindisi, Catania, Chania, Corfu, Faro, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Heraklion, Ibiza, Jerez de la Frontera, Kos, Lamezia Terme, Lanzarote, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Lesbos, Lourdes, Málaga, Minorca, Mykonos, Naples, Olbia, Palermo, Palma de Mallorca, Rhodes, Samos, Santorini, Tenerife-South, Thessaloniki, Toulon, Zakynthos, Zaragoza A
Jetairfly Agadir, Aqaba, Boa Vista, Cairo, Cancún, Dubrovnik, Djerba, Enfidha [seasonal, begins 2 April], Hurghada, Liberia, Luxor, Marrakech, Mombasa, Montego Bay, Nador, Oujda, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, Sal, Sharm el-Sheikh, Tabarka, Tangier, Tunis, Varadero, Varna, Zanzibar B
KLM operated by KLM Cityhopper Amsterdam A
LOT Polish Airlines Warsaw A
Lufthansa Frankfurt, Munich [resumes 28 March] A
Lufthansa Regional operated by Augsburg Airways Munich A
Lufthansa Regional operated by Contact Air Hanover, Nuremberg, Stuttgart A
Lufthansa Regional operated by Eurowings Frankfurt A
Lufthansa Regional operated by Lufthansa CityLine Munich A
Malév Hungarian Airlines Budapest A
Middle East Airlines Beirut [resumes 22 June; seasonal] B
Olympic Air Athens A
Ostfriesische Lufttransport Bremen A
Pegasus Airlines Antalya [seasonal], Bodrum [seasonal], Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen B
Royal Air Maroc Casablanca B
Royal Jordanian Amman B
Scandinavian Airlines Copenhagen, Oslo-Gardermoen, Stockholm-Arlanda A
Swiss International Air Lines Zürich A
Swiss operated by Swiss European Air Lines Basel/Mulhouse, Zürich A
Syrian Air Aleppo, Beirut, Damascus B
TAP Portugal Lisbon, Porto A
TAROM Bucharest-Henri Coand B
Transavia.com Innsbruck, Kuusamo, Salzburg [all seasonal] A
Tunisair Djerba, Monastir, Tunis B
Turkish Airlines Ankara, Eskiehir, Istanbul-Atatürk B
Ukraine International Airlines Kiev-Boryspil B
United Airlines Chicago-O'Hare [begins 29 March][5], London-Heathrow [seasonal], Washington-Dulles B
US Airways Philadelphia [resumes 2 April] B
Vueling Airlines Barcelona, Seville [seasonal], Valencia, Vigo [begins 29 March] A
Wind Jet Forlì [resumes 11 May; seasonal] A
Charter
 This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2010)
Airlines Destinations Pier
Bulgarian Air Charter Burgas, Varna [both seasonal] B
Freebird Airlines Antalya, Bodrum, Dalaman, zmir [all seasonal] B
Nouvelair Djerba, Monastir [both seasonal] B
Sky Airlines Antalya [seasonal] B
Thomas Cook Airlines (Belgium) Alicante, Almería, Athens, Barcelona, Burgas, Cagliari, Catania, Chania, Chios, Corfu, Faro, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Gerona, Heraklion, Ibiza, Jerez de la Frontera, Kos, La Palma, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Lesbos, Lisbon, Málaga, Malta, Minorca, Mykonos, Naples, Olbia, Palma de Mallorca, Palermo, Rhodes, Rimini, Reus, Santorini, Tenerife-South, Venice-Marco Polo, Zakynthos [all charters] A
Thomas Cook Airlines (Belgium) Agadir, Antalya, Bodrum, Burgas, Cairo, Dalaman, Dubrovnik, Hurgada, zmir, Larnaca, Luxor, Marrakech, Marsa Alam, Monastir, Paphos, Sharm el-Sheikh, Split, Taba, Tunis, Varna B
XL Airways France Cancún, Phuket, Punta Cana, Varadero [all seasonal] B
Cargo
Airlines Destinations
Air Algérie Algiers, Casablanca
Asiana Cargo Anchorage, Halifax, London-Stansted, New York-JFK, Seoul-Incheon
Atlas Air
Cathay Pacific Cargo Dubai, Hong Kong, Manchester, Stockholm-Arlanda
Demavia Airlines Kinshasa
DHL International Aviation ME
EgyptAir Cargo Cairo
EVA Air Cargo Delhi, Dubai, London-Heathrow, Taipei-Taiwan Taoyuan, Vienna
European Air Transport London-Heathrow
Global Aviation & Services Group Tripoli-Mitiga
Kalitta Air Bahrain, New York-JFK, Newark
Korean Air Cargo Seoul-Incheon, Vienna
Lufthansa Cargo East Midlands, New York-JFK
Royal Air Maroc Casablanca
Royal Jordanian Cargo Algiers, Amman, Cairo
Saudi Arabian Airlines Cargo Dammam, Houston-Intercontinental, Jeddah, New York-JFK, Riyadh
Singapore Airlines Cargo Amsterdam, Atlanta, Bangalore, Bogotá, Campinas, Chennai, Chicago-O'Hare, Dhaka, Dallas/Fort Worth, Dubai, Kolkata, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Quito, Sharjah, Singapore
TNT Airways Tangier
Gallery

The old airport of Haren in 1929

The old terminal

Pier A

Pier A seen from the airport building

Pier B seen from outside

The control tower

Brussels Airport at dusk

The airport skyline, as seen from the southeast side

Access

Car and taxi

Brussels Airport can be reached by car via the A201, which is directly connected to the R0 highway. From there, the main highways of Belgium can directly be accessed.

Bicycle

Brussels Airport has a special separated road that provides access to the airport for bikers and pedestrians. There is also a special place to park bikes.

Rail

The Brussels Airport railway station is located under the airport building at level -1. The train station has direct services to Brussels, De Panne, Ghent, Hasselt, Landen, Leuven, Liège, Nivelles and Quévy.

A direct train link with Leuven and Liège was opened on 12 December 2005. A direct link with Antwerp and Mechelen via the so-called Diabolo line will be completed in 2012.

Bus

De Lijn provides transportation to and from various cities in Flanders.

Incidents and accidents

See also

Brussels portal
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brussels Airport

References

  1. ^ a b EAD Basic
  2. ^ Expatica: Record numbers of passengers at Brussels Airport
  3. ^ Shuttles Brussels - Charleroi Airport
  4. ^ http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/942/Economie/article/detail/782602/2009/03/20/Brussels-Airport-vervangt-borden-met-vluchtinformatie.dhtml
  5. ^ http://www.united.com/press/detail/0,7056,61241,00.html
  6. ^ AirDisaster.Com
  7. ^ "Plane comes off Brussels runway". 25 May 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7419280.stm. Retrieved 2009-12-31. 

External links

v  d  e
Belgian airports
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