New bicycle highway to Brussels Airport inaugurated

The new, long-expected bicycle connection to Brussels Airport was officially inaugurated on Monday. The almost two-kilometer-long bicycle highway connects the existing F3 bicycle path between Louvain and Brussels with the airport in Zaventem.

Brussels Airport already announced in December 2017 to be willing to invest in an extra exit, a branch on the existing F3 Leuven-Brussels high-speed bicycle path. “Thanks to this new branch we can offer our employees a new, easy to use and safe route to the airport, not bothered by any other traffic,” Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport, said at that time.

Bicycle-friendly environment

“Smart mobility is essential for the airport,” says Arnaud Feist in Belga’s press release on Monday. “We’re responsible for safe aviation, but we’re also an important hub for public transport. On top of that, we want to provide a bicycle-friendly environment and incite those who work and live here and those who travel light to use the bike more often.”

Today, only a small percentage of airport staff commute by bike. Thanks to this new bicycle connection, figures can go up, the CEO hopes.

Former railway bedding

The new ‘fietsostrade‘ – Dutch for bicycle highway – is 1,8 km long and 3,5 meters wide. It is partly embedded in the former railway bedding. Works started in September and took almost seven months. The cost of the project was almost two million euros. Brussels Airport invested about one million in the project; Flemish Brabant, the Flemish authorities, and Zaventem’s municipality paid for the rest.

The new bicycle connection results from close cooperation between the Flemish Region, Flemish Brabant, local authorities of Zaventem, and Brussels Airport Company.