Brussels Airport Cargo Slumps

Brussels airport's cargo traffic slumped by a third in 2009 from the previous year as DHL, the express carrier, completed the move of its European hub to Germany and another major customer, Cargo B, filed for bankruptcy.

The Belgian airport handled 450,000 tonnes of freight in 2009, down 32.1 percent from 661,000 tonnes in 2008.

The airport said integrator traffic suffered badly from DHL's move to Leipzig and the demise of Cargo B reduced all-cargo shipments while import and export cargo fell as the result of the global economic crisis.

DHL moved to the East German airport after Brussels introduced restrictions on night flights.

Even cargo carried on passenger aircraft declined from 2008 despite a recovery in the second half of the year, the airport said.

The rate of decline slowed in December when traffic totaled 38,500 tonnes, down 10.6 percent from the same period in 2008. The improvement was driven mainly by cargo carried on passenger aircraft which grew by a "spectacular" 46 percent.

The slump in 2009 traffic pushed Brussels into second place among Belgian cargo hubs, behind Liege, where traffic dropped just 7.4 percent to 482,000 tonnes. The airport, which is a hub for TNT Express, attracted Ethiopian Cargo from Brussels last year.

Brussels passenger traffic shrunk 8.2 percent in 2009 to 17 million from 18.5 million in 2008.

Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.