Six new summer destinations from Brussels Airport

Brussels Airport is adding six new destinations to its network this summer, starting on March 30th. These destinations are both within Europe and intercontinental.

Passengers will be able to fly directly from Brussels Airport to 180 destinations offered by 68 airlines. Some new summer destinations, such as Curaçao (TUI fly) and Bangkok (Thai Airways International), have already been in the Brussels Airport network since winter.

Closer to home, direct connections will start with Bordeaux (easyJet and Transavia) and Montpellier (Transavia), destinations that are otherwise perfectly accessible by train, given the short distance and travel time (around 4h30 and 5h30).

Flights to Bordeaux

Recently, some researchers have said that trying to emit less CO2 by traveling within Europe by train instead of by plane has no effect. Due to European emission caps, someone else will emit the saved CO2 anyway.

However, they correctly pointed out that other greenhouse gases common in aviation, other than CO2, are not included in the Emission Trading System (ETS), and as a result, flying and rail are not treated the same way in terms of climate.

Flights over 500 kilometers are subject to a flight tax of two euros per person for destinations within the European Union and four euros outside the EU. For shorter flights, this rate increases to ten euros.

The new federal government agreement includes a reform of this embarkation tax. The rate of ten euros for short flights would not change, but to ‘simplify’ the tax, there will be a rate of five euros per person on longer flights.

To Atlanta and Hong Kong

From June, Delta will again fly to Atlanta, in the southeast of the United States, and at the beginning of August Cathay Pacific will restart flights to Hong Kong.

Both connections had been halted during the coronavirus pandemic. Thus, Brussels Airport has seven direct destinations to Asia, including Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Singapore, in addition to Bangkok and Hong Kong.

In addition, Norwegian, with a direct flight to Oslo, Air Albania (Tirana), Chalair (Brive), and FlyOne Armenia (Yerevan) are strengthening Brussels Airport’s offer this summer.

Fewer destinations compared to last summer

Brussels Airport also lost some destinations, as its network consisted of 178 at the start of last summer season. In total, 68 airlines will operate at Brussels Airport.

Brussels Airlines is the largest customer, flying to 90 destinations, including five additional weekly flights to Africa. TUI Fly has 66 and is expanding its offering to include Croatia’s Split.