Brussels Airport (BRU) reported a resilient 3.2 % year-on-year increase to nearly 2.3 million passengers in May 2026, according to figures released on 11 June by industry portal Aviation.Direct. The growth came in spite of a 24-hour national strike on 12 May that grounded an estimated 25 000 travellers and ongoing suspensions of Tel Aviv and Doha services triggered by regional tensions. Leisure demand drove the uptick, with Spain, Italy and Greece topping destination charts alongside solid volumes to Turkey and Morocco—routes popular with Belgium’s sizeable diaspora communities and multinational firms with Mediterranean subsidiaries. Transfer traffic, a bellwether for hub competitiveness, stabilised at 13 % of departures as North-Atlantic and sub-Saharan connections recovered. The cargo story was even stronger: overall tonnage jumped 12 % to 75 847 t, propelled by a 53 % surge in dedicated freighter operations linked to e-commerce flows from Asia and Latin America. Express-integrator volumes slipped 5.4 %, but freighter gains more than offset the decline in belly-hold capacity caused by cancelled Gulf flights. For corporate travel planners the data signal that seat availability will tighten on peak southern-Europe routes, pushing up summer fares. Freight forwarders, meanwhile, may encounter slot congestion for ad-hoc charters as BRU approaches pre-pandemic movement levels; the airport recorded a modest 0.6 % rise in commercial aircraft movements, with load factors climbing to an average 147 passengers per flight. Airport operator Brussels Airport Company reiterated that large-scale taxiway renovation works, running through mid-September, are on schedule and “not expected to disrupt the Preferential Runway System,” but airlines are advising shippers to finalise cargo bookings early. The figures underscore BRU’s role as a critical logistics and mobility hub for multinational businesses headquartered in Belgium and neighbouring Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Source: Aviation.Direct
