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Brussels South Charleroi Airport

Coordinates: 50°27′36″N 004°27′10″E / 50.46000°N 4.45278°E / 50.46000; 4.45278
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Brussels South Charleroi Airport

Aéroport de Charleroi Bruxelles Sud
Summary
Airport typePublic
OwnerGovernment of Wallonia
OperatorSociété Wallonne des Aéroports
ServesCharleroi and Brussels, Belgium
LocationCharleroi, Hainaut
Focus city for
Elevation AMSL614 ft / 187 m
Coordinates50°27′36″N 004°27′10″E / 50.46000°N 4.45278°E / 50.46000; 4.45278
Websitebrussels-charleroi-airport.com
Map
CRL is located in Belgium
CRL
CRL
Brussels South Charleroi Airport in Belgium
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
06/24 2,550 8,366 Asphalt
Statistics (2019)
Passengers8,224,196
Change 18-19Increase10%
Biplane on the Gosselies airfield in 1920.

Brussels South Charleroi Airport (BSCA), also unofficially called Brussels-Charleroi Airport, Charleroi Airport or rarely Gosselies Airport, (IATA: CRL, ICAO: EBCI) is an international airport, located in Gosselies, a part of the city of Charleroi in the Province of Hainaut in Wallonia, Belgium. The airport is 4 nautical miles (7.4 km; 4.6 mi) north[1] of Charleroi and 46 km (29 mi) south of central Brussels. In terms of passengers and aircraft movements, it is the second busiest airport in Belgium having served 7,303,720 passengers in 2016 (75,038 movements). It is also a busy general aviation airfield, being home to 3 flying schools.

The Aéropole, one of the Science Parks of Wallonia, is located near the airport.

History

Early years

The first aeronautical activities in Gosselies date back to 1919 as a flying school, then aeronautical maintenance activities the following year. The British aircraft manufacturer Fairey Aviation settled a subsidiary Avions Fairey on the site (then known as Mont des Bergers) in 1931.

During World War II, the site was arranged as an Advanced Landing Ground (A-87) for the allied air forces, from 14 September 1944 until 10 August 1945.

Gosselies airfield became a public aerodrome after World War II, but the main activities of the site remained aeronautical constructions (installation of SABCA in 1954, then SONACA in 1978, taking the place of Fairey).

In the 1970s, the Belgian national airline Sabena launched a Liège–Charleroi–London service, but this was soon dropped because of poor results. Gosselies was left with almost no passenger traffic, the airport being mainly used for private or pleasure flights, training flights and occasional charters to leisure destinations around the Mediterranean Sea or to Algeria.

Development since the 1990s

Operations at Brussels South Charleroi grew in the 1990s, with a new commercial management structure (BSCA – Brussels South Charleroi Airport) and the arrival of Irish low-cost airline Ryanair in 1997, which opened its first continental base at Charleroi a few years later.[2]

Although criticised for the subsidies paid by the Walloon government to help its installation, Ryanair opened new routes from Brussels South Charleroi (they also closed two destinations: London–Stansted and Liverpool, although Stansted was re-introduced in June 2007 before being suspended again).[2] Other low-cost carriers later joined Ryanair in Brussels South Charleroi, such as Wizz Air. The Polish airline Air Polonia operated services from here to Warsaw and Katowice before going bankrupt in August 2004.

In September 2006 it was announced that Moroccan low-cost airline Jet4you would launch three weekly flights to Casablanca (on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday) starting 1 November 2006, in code-share cooperation with Belgian airline Jetairfly.[3]

A new terminal opened in January 2008. It has a capacity of up to 5 million passengers a year, which means that it has reached its maximum capacity in 2010 (5,195,372 passengers). [4]

The European Commission objected to assistance the airport offered to Ryanair, since the airport is owned by the Wallonia regional government and thus the discounts and other benefits could be considered state aid.[5] However, the Court of First Instance (a European Union court) decided on 17 December 2008 that the Commission's decision finding that illegal aid had been granted to Ryanair should be annulled and quashed as being erroneous in law. However, in March 2012, the Commission reopened the case in order to take this judgment into account.[6]

In January 2017, a second terminal (Terminal 2) was opened in order to relieve the T1 during rush hours and to be able to accommodate 10 million passengers a year in the future.[7]

In May 2019, work began on an extension of Charleroi Airport’s runway. Runway 06/24 is undergoing a 650 meter extension on the 24 end of the runway. Work is expected to be completed in late 2021.[8]

The SABCA facility on site conducts depot-level maintenance, repair and overhaul work on United States Air Force F-16s based in Europe.[9]

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Brussels South Charleroi Airport:[10]

AirlinesDestinations
Air Algérie Algiers
Air Belgium Fort-de-France, Pointe-à-Pitre
Air Corsica Seasonal: Ajaccio, Bastia, Calvi, Figari
Pegasus Airlines Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen
Ryanair Agadir, Alghero, Alicante, Ancona, Asturias (begins 4 November 2022),[11] Athens, Banja Luka, Barcelona, Bari, Bergamo, Béziers, Billund, Bologna, Bordeaux, Bratislava, Brindisi, Bucharest, Budapest, Cagliari, Carcassonne, Comiso, Dublin, Edinburgh, Faro, Fes, Fuerteventura, Funchal,[12] Genoa, Gran Canaria, Helsinki, Kaunas,[13] Kraków, Lamezia Terme, Lanzarote, Lisbon, Liverpool, Łódź (begins 1 November 2022),[14] Lourdes,[13] Madrid, Málaga, Malta, Manchester, Marrakesh, Marseille, Nador, Naples, Nîmes, Oujda, Palermo, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos, Perpignan, Pescara, Pisa, Porto, Poznań, Prague, Rabat, Rome–Fiumicino,[13] Santander, Santiago de Compostela, Seville, Sibiu, Sofia, Stockholm–Arlanda,[13] Suceava, Tangier, Tel Aviv, Tenerife–South, Tétouan, Thessaloniki, Toulouse, Trapani,[13] Treviso, Trieste,[13] Turin, Valencia, Verona, Vienna, Vitoria,[15] Warsaw–Modlin, Wrocław, Zagreb, Zaragoza
Seasonal: Almería, Bergerac, Castellón, Catania, Chania, Corfu, Essaouira,[13] Figari, Girona, Glasgow, Heraklion, Ibiza, Klagenfurt (begins 2 November 2022),[16] La Rochelle, Menorca,[13] Perugia, Pula, Reus, Rhodes, Rijeka, Rodez, Rovaniemi (begins 30 October 2022),[17] Zadar
TUI fly Belgium[18] Algiers, Alicante, Casablanca, Constantine, Málaga, Nador, Oran, Oujda, Rabat, Tangier, Toulon, Tunis
Seasonal: Al Hoceima, Béjaïa, Djerba, Enfidha, Heraklion, Hurghada, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Rhodes, Sharm El Sheikh, Tenerife–South, Tlemcen
Wizz Air[19] Bacău, Bucharest, Budapest, Chișinău (resumes 6 September 2022), Cluj-Napoca, Craiova,[20] Debrecen,[21] Iași, Ljubljana, Sarajevo,[21] Skopje, Sofia, Timișoara, Tirana, Varna, Warsaw–Chopin

Statistics

Terminal interior
Aerial view
Annual passenger traffic at Brussels South Charleroi Airport. See Wikidata query.
Passengers per year
Year Passengers Evolution
2001 773,431 –
2002 1,271,979 Increase64.45%
2003 1,803,587 Increase41.19%
2004 2,034,797 Increase12.81%
2005 1,873,349 Decrease8.61%
2006 2,166,360 Increase15.64%
2007 2,458,255 Increase13.47%
2008 2,957,026 Increase20.28%
2009 3,937,187 Increase33.14%
2010 5,195,372 Increase31.96%
2011 5,901,007 Increase15.18%
2012 6,516,427 Increase10.43%
2013 6,786,979 Increase4.15%
2014 6,439,957 Decrease5.1%
2015 6,956,302 Increase8.01%
2016 7,303,720 Increase4.99%
2017 7,698,767 Increase5.41%
2018 7,454,671 Decrease3.27%
2019 8,224,196 Increase10.32%[22]
Busiest Routes from Charleroi Airport (2016)
Rank Airport Passengers 2016
1  Hungary, Budapest Airport 313,983
2  Italy, Bergamo Airport 279,694
3  Romania, Bucharest Airport 260,009
4  Spain, Madrid Airport 251,526
5  Denmark, Copenhagen Airport 200,486
Source: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/transport/data/database

Ground transportation

Bus

There are several shuttles to different cities in the neighbouring countries (Luxembourg, Metz, Thionville, Lille) plus a regular coach service that runs from the airport to Brussels-South railway station. Also, a special bus (Airport Express – A) operates from the airport to Charleroi-South railway station. A combined bus and train ticket to any other Belgian railway station can be bought in the terminal.

Car

The airport is accessible by the A54/E420 highway

Accidents and incidents

  • On 8 April 2011, a Dutch F-16 had to make an emergency landing because of a technical failure of one of its sets of landing gear. The plane landed on its belly. The pilot did not suffer any injuries.[23]
  • On 9 February 2013, a small Cessna plane crashed near the runway after suffering technical problems during take-off, killing all 5 people on board. The airport was closed for about six hours before resuming services.[24][25]

See also

References

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

  1. ^ EBCI – CHARLEROI / Brussels South (also PDF). Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) from AIM Belgium via skeyes.
  2. ^ a b "Ryanair ready to take advantage of Charleroi's new terminal - anna.aero". 30 November 2007.
  3. ^ "Air Arabia Maroc launches with six destinations from Casablanca starting with Stansted - anna.aero". 8 May 2009.
  4. ^ "Welcome | Brussels South Charleroi Airport". www.brussels-charleroi-airport.com. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  5. ^ "BBC NEWS - Business - Ryanair slates Charleroi ruling". bbc.co.uk.
  6. ^ "European Commission - PRESS RELEASES - Press release - State aid: Commission opens in-depth investigations in air transport sector in Belgium, France and Germany". europa.eu.
  7. ^ Orban, André (27 January 2017). "Charleroi Airport Terminal 2 opens for business: first commercial flights will leave on Monday, 30 January 2017". Aviation24.be. Archived from the original on 26 October 2020. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
  8. ^ "Work begins to extend the runway". Brussels South Charleroi Airport. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
  9. ^ Lake, Jon. "Have Glass: Making the F-16 less observable". Key.Aero. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  10. ^ charleroi-airport.com - Timetable Archived 15 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine retrieved May 2016
  11. ^ https://www.lne.es/asturias/2022/06/22/asturias-tendra-rutas-internacionales-previstas-67545010.html
  12. ^ "Ryanair vai da Madeira para 10 cidades da Europa a 29,99 euros". 23 November 2021.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h "Ryanair".
  14. ^ "Wyborcza.pl".
  15. ^ "Vuelos Vitoria Bruselas - Aeropuerto de Vitoria Foronda ✈️". Aeropuertovitoria.com. 28 March 2022. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
  16. ^ "Land Kärnten und Klagenfurt wollen Airport rückkaufen". 3 May 2022.
  17. ^ "Ryanair announces flights from Brussels Charleroi, Dublin & London Stansted to Lapland for Winter '22". Aviation24.be. 31 March 2022. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
  18. ^ "Flight plan". tuifly.be.
  19. ^ "Operating Routes". Wizzair.com. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
  20. ^ Journal, Romania (21 December 2021). "Wizz Air announced five new more routes from Cluj-Napoca and Craiova – The Romania Journal". Romaniajournal.ro. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
  21. ^ a b "WIZZ Air Ltd". Archived from the original on 4 December 2003.
  22. ^ "Statistics". brussels-charleroi-airport.com.
  23. ^ "Accident d'un F16 à Charleroi: réouverture de l'aéroport". rtl.be.
  24. ^ "Belgian airport reopens after plane crash kills family". Reuters. 9 February 2013. Archived from the original on 6 January 2015. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  25. ^ "Belgium plane crash closes Charleroi airport". BBC News. 9 February 2013.

Media related to Brussels South Charleroi Airport at Wikimedia Commons


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