Brussels Airport

Not to be confused with 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 Diegem, Machelen
Hub for	Brussels Airlines Eva Air Cargo Jet Airways Jetairfly Saudi Arabian Airlines Cargo Singapore Airlines Cargo Thomas Cook Airlines
Elevation AMSL	184 ft / 56 m
Coordinates	50°54′05″N 004°29′04″E
Website	www.brusselsairport.be
Map
BRU Location in Belgium
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 Asphalt
Statistics (2010)
Passengers 17,180,606 Freight (tonnes) 476,135 Aircraft movements 225,682
Sources: Brussels Airport

Brussels Airport (IATA: BRU, ICAO: EBBR) (also called Brussel Nationaal/Bruxelles-National (Brussels National)) is an international airport 6 NM (11 km; 6.9 mi) northeast of Brussels, Belgium. The airport is partially in Zaventem and partially in the Diegem area of Machelen, both located in the Flemish Region of Belgium.

Brussels Airport currently consists of 54 contact gates, and a total of 109 gates. It is home to around 260 companies, together directly employing 20,000 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 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), which was created by Belgian law through a merger of BATC with the ground operations departments of the RLW/RVA. It is currently owned by the Australian group MAp Airports (75%) and the Belgian State (25%).

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 (8,040 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.

The old terminal building seen in 2010

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 (10,500 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 15 October 2008 all flights to African destinions (at the T-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.

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.

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 Charleroi Airport, 40 km (25 mi) away from Brussels.

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

In September 2009, CEO Wilfried Van Assche resigned. One of the (unofficial) reasons is the delay of the construction of the low-cost terminal and the possible lawsuit by 52 airlines active at Brussels Airport, because of the tax-discrimination. In February 2010 Arnaud Feist was appointed CEO. The company president is Luc Van den Bossche (former Belgian government minister).

Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations	Pier
Adria Airways	Ljubljana Seasonal: Pristina	A
Aegean Airlines	Athens, Heraklion [begins 28 March 2012] Seasonal: Corfu [begins 1 June 2012]	A
Aer Lingus	Dublin	B
Aeroflot	Moscow-Sheremetyevo	B
Air Algérie	Algiers Seasonal: Oran	B
Air Arabia Maroc	Casablanca, Nador, Tangier Seasonal: Fes, Oujda	B
Air Canada	Montréal-Trudeau, Toronto-Pearson	B
Air France	Toulouse [begins 1 April 2012]	A
Air France operated by Régional	Bordeaux, Lyon, Nantes	A
Air Lipsia operated by Central Connect Airlines	Leipzig/Halle	A
Air Malta	Malta	A
Air Transat	Seasonal: Montréal-Trudeau	B
AirBaltic	Riga	A
Alitalia	Milan-Linate, Rome-Fiumicino	A
American Airlines	New York-JFK	B
Austrian Airlines	Vienna	A
Austrian Airlines operated by Tyrolean Airways	Vienna	A
Belle Air	Tirana	B
Blue Air	Bacău, Bucharest-Băneasa, Constanţa	B
Blue1	Helsinki	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-Brandenburg [begins 3 June 2012], Berlin-Tegel [ends 2 June 2012], Bilbao, Bologna, Budapest, Copenhagen, Faro, Florence, Geneva, Gothenburg-Landvetter, Hamburg, Hanover, Kraków, Lamezia Terme, Lisbon, Lyon, Madrid, Málaga, Marseille, Milan-Linate, Milan-Malpensa, Naples, Nice, Oslo-Gardermoen, Palermo, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Porto, Prague, Rome-Fiumicino, Stockholm-Bromma, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Turin, Venice, Vienna, Vilnius, Warsaw Seasonal: Catania, Seville [ends 16 April 2012]	A
Brussels Airlines	Abidjan, Accra [ends 25 March], Agadir, Bamako, Banjul, Birmingham, Bujumbura, Conakry, Cotonou, Douala, Dakar, Entebbe, Freetown-Lungi, London-Heathrow, Kigali, Kinshasa-N'djili, Lomé, Luanda, Manchester, Marrakech, Monrovia, Moscow-Domodedovo, Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta, Ouagadougou, Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion, Yaoundé	B
Brussels Airlines operated by BMI Regional	Bristol, Newcastle upon Tyne	B
Brussels Airlines operated by Tyrolean Airways	Hanover	A
Bulgaria Air	Sofia	B
Croatia Airlines	Zagreb	B
Cyprus Airways	Larnaca [resumes 1 June 2012]	B
Czech Airlines	Prague	A
Delta Air Lines	Atlanta, New York-JFK	B
EasyJet	Berlin-Schönefeld, Liverpool, Lyon, Milan-Malpensa, Nice, Toulouse [begins 26 March 2012]	A
EasyJet Switzerland	Geneva	A
EgyptAir	Cairo	B
El Al	Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion	B
Estonian Air	Tallinn	A
Ethiopian Airlines	Addis Ababa, Milan-Malpensa	B
Etihad Airways	Abu Dhabi	B
Finnair	Helsinki	A
Flybe	Manchester, Southampton	B
Hainan Airlines	Beijing-Capital, Shanghai-Pudong [ends 1 January 2012]	B
Iberia	Madrid	A
Iberia operated by Air Nostrum	San Sebastián, Vigo	A
Icelandair	Seasonal: Reykjavík-Keflavík	A
Jat Airways	Amsterdam [ends 25 March 2012], Belgrade	B
Jet Airways	Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, New York-JFK, Newark, Toronto-Pearson	B
Jet4you operated by Jetairfly	Tangier	B
Jetairfly	Ajaccio, Alicante, Almería, Araxos, Arrecife, Athens, Bastia, Burgas, Catania, Chania, Corfu, Faro, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Heraklion, Ibiza, Istanbul-Atatürk, Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen, Jerez de la Frontera, Kos, Lamezia Terme, La Romana, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Lesbos, Lourdes, Málaga, Minorca, Mykonos, Naples, Olbia, Palermo, Palma de Mallorca, Ponta Delgada [begins 3 April 2012], Ohrid [begins 8 May 2012], Porto Santo, Rhodes, Samos, Santorini, Skopje [begins 8 May 2012], Tenerife-South, Thessaloniki, Toulon, Zakynthos, Zaragoza	A
Jetairfly	Agadir, Aqaba, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Boa Vista, Cairo, Brindisi, Cancún, Casablanca, Dubrovnik, Djerba, Enfidha, Fes [begins 30 June 2012], Hurghada, Liberia, Luxor, Malé, Marrakech, Mombasa, Montego Bay, Phuket, Pristina, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, Sal, Santo Domingo, Sharm el-Sheikh, Tabarka, Tangier [begins 28 June 2012], Tirana, Tunis, Varadero, Varna, Zanzibar Seasonal: Nador	B
KLM operated by KLM Cityhopper	Amsterdam	A
LOT Polish Airlines	Warsaw	A
Lufthansa	Frankfurt, Munich	A
Lufthansa Regional operated by Lufthansa CityLine	Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart	A
Malév Hungarian Airlines	Budapest	A
Middle East Airlines	Beirut	B
Ostfriesische Lufttransport	Bremen	A
Pegasus Airlines	Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen Seasonal: Antalya, Bodrum	B
Qatar Airways	Doha	B
Royal Air Maroc	Casablanca, Nador, Tangier Seasonal: Al Hoceima, Marrakech, Oujda	B
Royal Jordanian	Amman-Queen Alia	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	A
TAP operated by Portugália	Porto	A
TAROM	Bucharest-Henri Coandă	B
Thai Airways International	Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi	B
Tunisair	Djerba, Monastir, Tunis	B
Turkish Airlines	Eskişehir, Istanbul-Atatürk	B
Ukraine International Airlines	Kiev-Boryspil	B
United Airlines	Chicago-O'Hare, Newark, Washington-Dulles	B
US Airways	Philadelphia	B
Vueling	Barcelona, Valencia Seasonal: Seville	A

Charter

Airlines	Destinations	Pier
Bulgarian Air Charter	Seasonal: Burgas, Varna	B
Corendon Airlines	Seasonal: Antalya, Heraklion, Hurghada	B
Freebird Airlines	Seasonal: Istanbul-Atatürk	B
Lydd Air	Seasonal: Lydd	B
Nouvelair	Seasonal: Djerba, Monastir	B
Sky Airlines	Seasonal: Antalya	B
Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium	Alicante, Almería, Athens, Barcelona, Burgas, Cagliari, Catania, Chania, Chios, Corfu, Enfidha, 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, Zakynthos Seasonal: Tivat	A
Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium	Agadir, Antalya, Bodrum, Burgas, Cairo, Dalaman, Dubrovnik, Hurghada, İzmir, Larnaca, Luxor, Marrakech, Marsa Alam, Monastir, Oujda, Paphos, Sharm el-Sheikh, Split, Taba, Tunis, Varna	B
TNT Airways	Seasonal: Chania, Heraklion, Rhodes	A
TNT Airways	Seasonal: Agadir, Antalya, Bodrum, Marrakech	B

Cargo

Airlines	Destinations
Aerologic	Bahrain, Hong Kong
Air Algérie	Algiers, Casablanca
Aryan Cargo Express	Mumbai
Asiana Cargo	Anchorage, Halifax, London-Stansted, New York-JFK, Seoul-Incheon
Atlas Air
Cathay Pacific Cargo	Dubai, Hong Kong, Stockholm-Arlanda
Demavia Airlines	Kinshasa
DHL International
EgyptAir Cargo	Cairo
European Air Transport	Budapest, Lisbon, London-Heathrow
EVA Air Cargo	Delhi, Hanoi, London-Heathrow, Taipei-Taoyuan, Vienna
FedEx Express	Dublin, Istanbul-Atatürk, Paris-Charles de Gaulle
Global Aviation & Services Group	Tripoli-Mitiga
Iberia Cargo operated by Gestair	Madrid
Kalitta Air	Bahrain, New York-JFK
Korean Air Cargo	Miami, Navoiy, New York-JFK, Seoul-Incheon, Vienna, Zaragoza
Royal Air Maroc	Casablanca
Royal Jordanian Cargo	Algiers, Amman-Queen Alia, Cairo
Saudi Arabian Airlines Cargo	Dammam, Houston-Intercontinental, Jeddah, New York-JFK, Riyadh
Singapore Airlines Cargo	Amsterdam, Atlanta, Bangalore, Chennai, Chicago-O'Hare, Dhaka, Dallas/Fort Worth, Dubai, Kolkata, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Sharjah, Singapore
TNT Airways	Helsinki

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

Other facilities

b.house (Building 26), Brussels Airlines head office on the grounds of Brussels Airport and in Diegem

Brussels Airlines has its corporate head office in the b.house, Airport Building 26, located in Diegem, Machelen. Brussels Airlines formed in 2006 as a result of a merger between SN Brussels and Virgin Express. European Air Transport has its head office in Building 4–5, in Zaventem.

Before Sabena went out of business, its head office was in the Sabena House on the grounds of Brussels Airport. When it existed, Virgin Express had its head office in Building 116 in Zaventem. SN Brussels, which formed in 2002, had its head office in Airport Building 117 in Zaventem when it existed. Prior to its disestablishment, Sobelair had its head office in Building 45 in Zaventem.

Access

Car and taxi

Departure drop-off

Departure drop-off being renovated

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 National 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, Nivelles and Quévy. The most used link to Brussels has at least 3 trains per hour. There is also now a direct train to Paris once a day with Thalys. There is a special agreement with Brussels Airlines and Jet Airways for use of this service.

A direct train link with Leuven was opened on 12 December 2005. A direct link with Antwerp and Mechelen via the so-called Diabolo line is scheduled to be completed in 2012. The Diabolo project is a public private partnership. It has been decided that all rail passengers to the Brussels National Airport railway station station pay a "Diabolo supplement" to finance the ongoing and planned work.

Bus

De Lijn provides transportation to and from various cities in Flanders. The MIVB/STIB provides transportation into Brussels city centre at Brussels Luxembourg Station via line 12 (weekdays before 8 pm) or line 21 (weekends and evenings after 8 pm).

Incidents and accidents

Boeing 747 overran the runway and split in three.

• A serious accident in the vicinity of the airport was the crash of Sabena Flight 548, a Boeing 707 on 15 February 1961. The plane crashed during approach on runway 20, killing all 72 people on board and one on the ground.
• Four aircraft were destroyed on 5 May 2006 when Sabena Technics' hangar 40 burned down. The stricken aircraft were one Lockheed C-130 Hercules (Belgian Air Component) and three Airbus A320 (Armavia, Armenian International Airways and Hellas Jet).
• On 25 May 2008, a Boeing 747-200F operated by Kalitta Air, overran the shorter runway 20, crashed into a field and split in three. The five people on board were taken to hospital with four receiving minor injuries.

Runways; 07L/25R (3,638 m (11,936 ft)) 07R/25L (3,211 m (10,535 ft)) and 02/20 (2,984 m (9,790 ft)), prior to the construction of Pier A in 2002

See also

• Transport in Belgium

References

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

External links

• Brussels Airport homepage
• Current weather for EBBR at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for BRU at Aviation Safety Network