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'Brussels Airport' (also called in Dutch: 'Luchthaven Zaventem' or in French: 'Aéroport de Zaventem'), also 'Zaventem Airport' or 'Brussels (Zaventem) International Airport', was formerly known as "''Brussel Nationaal/Bruxelles-National''" (Brussels National). It is an international airport located in Zaventem, in Flanders, near Brussels, Belgium. The airport is a hub to Brussels Airlines, European Air Transport, Jet Airways, and Singapore Airlines Cargo. It is also a hub for a private company called Abelag Aviation
The airport is home to around 260 companies, together directly employing 20,000 people.
In 2005, the airport was awarded Best Airport in Europe by 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 October 19 2006, the name was BIAC (Brussels International Airport Company).

Contents

History

Incidents & Accidents

Airlines and destinations

Pier A

Pier B

Cargo

Defunct airlines

See also

External links

History

The airport was constructed during World War II by the German occupying force. There is an urban legend that the site of the airport in Zaventem 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 German occupation, the Belgian army took control of the airport. When the old civilian airport in Haren became too small, it was decided to use the site in Zaventem for the new national airport. By 1948, a new terminal building was constructed to replace the old wooden building.
In 1955, a train line connecting Brussels with the airport was constructed. A direct train link with Leuven and Liège was opened on December 12 2005. A link with Antwerp will be completed in 2010. In April 1957, construction started of the new terminal, preparing the airport for the 1958 World Fair. During the boom of commercial aviation in the 1960's and 1970's, 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.
In 2005, the airport served 16.2 million passengers, an increase of 3.5% over 2004. The cargo volume in the same year amounted to 702,819 tonnes, an increase of 5.8% over 2004.
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.

Incidents & Accidents

The only serious accident in the vicinity of the airport was the crash of a Sabena Boeing 707 on 15 February 1961. The plane crashed during approach, killing all 72 people on board and one on the ground. [1]
On 29 August 1998 the landing gear of an Brussels bound A340-211 (OO-SCW Flight SN542 New-York - Brussels) of SABENA collapsed during the landing. The right horizontal stabilizer was destroyed.
Four aircraft were destroyed on 5 May, 2006 when Sabena Technics' Hanger 40 burned out. The stricken aircraft were one Lockheed C-130 Hercules (Belgian Air Force) and three Airbus A320 (Armavia, Armenian International Airways and Hellas Jet).

Airlines and destinations

Pier A

★ Air France (Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Lyon)

★ Alitalia (Milan-Linate, Milan-Malpensa, Rome-Fiumicino)

★ Austrian Airlines (Vienna)

★ British Airways

★
★ operated by Sun Air of Scandinavia (Billund, Bern)

★ Brussels Airlines (Athens, Barcelona, Berlin-Schönefeld, Berlin-Tempelhof, Bilbao, Bologna, Budapest, Casablanca, Catania, Copenhagen, Faro, Frankfurt, Geneva, Gothenburg-Landvetter, Hamburg, Helsinki, Lisbon, Lyon, Madrid, Malaga, Marseille, Milan-Bergamo, Milan-Malpensa, Munich, Murcia, Naples, Nice, Oslo, Palermo, Palma de Mallorca, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Porto, Rome-Fiumicino, Seville, Stockholm-Bromma, Strasbourg, Tel Aviv, Toulouse, Turin, Valencia, Venice, Vienna)

★ EasyJet (Berlin-Schönefeld [starts October 29, 2007], Nice [starts November 5, 2007])

★ Finnair (Helsinki)

★ Iberia Airlines (Barcelona, Madrid, Santiago de Compostela)

★
★ operated by Air Nostrum (Asturias)

★ Jetairfly (Bourgas, Murcia, Toulon, Zaragoza)

★ KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

★
★ KLM Cityhopper (Amsterdam)

★ Lufthansa (Berlin-Tegel, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Munich, Nuremberg, Stuttgart)

★ Olympic Airlines (Athens)

★ Ostfriesische Lufttransport (Bremen)

★ Scandinavian Airlines (Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm-Arlanda)

★ SkyEurope (Vienna)

★ Sterling Airlines (Copenhagen, Stockholm-Arlanda, Oslo) [starts October 22, 2007]

★ TAP Portugal (Lisbon, Porto [starts September 15, 2007])

★ Thomas Cook Airlines (Belgium) ( Alicante, Bourgas, Ibiza, Las Palmas, Menorca, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos)

★ VLM Airlines (London-City)

★ Vueling Airlines (Barcelona, Seville [starts December 2, 2007], Valencia, Madrid [starts October 28, 2007])

Pier B

★ Adria Airways (Ljubljana)

★ Aer Lingus (Dublin)

★ Aeroflot (Moscow-Sheremetyevo)

★ Afriqiyah Airways (Tripoli)

★ Air Algérie (Algiers, Oran [seasonal])

★ Air Malta (Malta)

★ Air Transat (Montréal [seasonal])

★ airBaltic (Riga, Vilnius)

★ Albanian Airlines (Tirana)

★ American Airlines (Chicago-O'Hare, New York-JFK)

★ Atlas Blue (Marrakech)

★ bmi (London-Heathrow)

★
★ bmi regional (East Midlands, Edinburgh, Leeds/Bradford)

★ British Airways (London-Heathrow)

★ Brussels Airlines (Abidjan, Banjul, Birmingham, Bristol, Bujumbura, Conakry, Doula, Dakar, Entebbe, Freetown, Istanbul-Atatürk, Kigali, Kinshasa, Krakow, London-Gatwick, Luanda, Manchester, Monrovia, Moscow-Domodedovo, Nairobi, Newcastle, Prague, St. Petersburg, Tel Aviv, Warsaw, Yaoundé)

★ Bulgaria Air (Sofia)

★ Continental Airlines (Newark)

★ Croatia Airlines (Split [seasonal], Zagreb)

★ Czech Airlines (Prague)

★ Cyprus Airways (Larnaca)

★ Delta Air Lines (Atlanta, New York-JFK)

★ Eastern Airways (Durham-Tees Valley, Southampton)

★ EasyJet

★
★ operated by EasyJet Switzerland (Geneva)

★ EgyptAir (Cairo, Luxor)

★ El Al (Tel Aviv)

★ Estonian Air (Tallinn)

★ Ethiopian Airlines (Addis Ababa)

★ Etihad Airways (Abu Dhabi)

★ Flybe (Manchester, Southampton [starts October 28, 2007])

★ FlyLal (Vilnius)

★ Freebird Airlines (Bodrum, Antalya) [Seasonal]

★ Hainan Airlines (Beijing)

★ Hewa Bora Airways (Kinshasa)

★ Jat Airways (Belgrade)

★ Jet Airways (Bangalore [begins May 2008],Chennai [starts November 5], Delhi, Mumbai, New York-JFK [begins October 30], Newark, Toronto-Pearson)

★ Jetairfly (Agadir, Cairo, Cancun, Dubrovnik, Djerba, Hurghada, Luxor, Marrakech, Monastir, Montego Bay, Nador, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, Sharm El Sheik, Tabarka, Tangier, Tunis, Varadero, Varna)

★ KD Avia (Kaliningrad)

★ LOT Polish Airlines (Warsaw)

★ Malév Hungarian Airlines (Budapest)

★ Onur Air (Antalya, Istanbul-Atatürk) [Seasonal]

★ Pegasus Airlines (Antalya, Bodrum) [Seasonal]

★ Royal Air Maroc (Casablanca, Nador, Oujda, Tangier)

★ SkyEurope (Budapest, Krakow, Prague)

★ Swiss International Air Lines (Basel/Mulhouse, Zürich)

★ Syrian Arab Airlines (Aleppo, Beirut, Damascus)

★ TAROM (Bucharest-Otopeni)

★ Thomas Cook Airlines (Belgium) (Agadir, Antalya, Choayang, Djerba, Izmir, Malta, Varna)

★ Tunisair (Djerba, Monastir, Tunis)

★ Turkish Airlines (Ankara, Istanbul-Atatürk)

★ Ukraine International Airlines (Kiev-Boryspil)

★ United Airlines (Washington-Dulles)

★ US Airways (Philadelphia)

Cargo

Cargo branches of the following airlines serve BRU with freighter aircraft.

★ Air Algerie

★ Asiana Airlines

★ Cathay Pacific

★ Ethiopian Airlines

★ EVA Air

★ Icelandair

★ Kalitta Air

★ Korean Air Cargo

★ Royal Jordanian

★ Saudi Arabian Airlines

★ Singapore Airlines

Defunct airlines

Defunct airlines with a base at Brussels (incomplete list):

★ Air Belgium

★ Benelux Falcon Services

★ Challengair

★ CityBird

★ Constellation Airlines

★ European Airlines

★ Sabena

★ Sobelair

★ VG/Delsey Airlines

★ Viasa (Caracas)

★ Bravo Air Congo (Secondary hub)

See also

★ Transportation in Belgium

★ Flanders Institute for Logistics (VIL)

External links

★ Brussels Airport homepage