Brussels South Charleroi Airport (CRL/EBCI)

Other major reasons to serve this airport

Brussels South Charleroi Airport handled well over six million passengers in 2014 and is targeting around nine million by 2017. Additional terminal capacity is being planned to cater for this expected growth.

• Fast and easy accessibility – dense highways network, no traffic jams, large shuttle offer to major cities in Belgium (Brussels, Gent, Bruges, etc), as well as Lille (France) and Luxembourg.
• High operational performance – 25-minutes-turnaround for aircraft type B737 and A320.
• Important know-how and expertise.
• Flexible airport – ‘Do It Yourself’ services; handling made by Brussels South Charleroi Airport Staff.
• No Stress Airport – Fast access for passengers and airlines – 12 minutes from the car park to the aircraft (passengers), eight minutes from the runway to the aircraft parking lot (airlines).
• ILS (Cat. III)
• No slot coordination.
• Strong economic potential in Belgium (biotechnology, automotive sector, pharmaceutical, agro-food sector, aerospace, ICT, environment, transport, logistics).

Marketing and other support

Jetairfly, Ryanair and Wizz Air are already taking advantage of the airport’s fast and efficient facilities. Turnrounds of 25 minutes for A320 and 737-type aircraft are the norm.

• Marketing investment for all new airlines, operating to/from CRL, or new routes.
• Communication and marketing action plan.
• Continuous communication plan.
• Potential partnership with regional/local/foreign tourism offices.
• Airport – liaison between airline and targeted communities, tourism boards, etc.

Catchment Area

• 30 minutes – 2 million potential customers
• 60 minutes – 5 million potential customers
• 120 minutes – 15 million potential customers

Under-served freight opportunities and other economic impact factors

• Presence of important clusters around the airport:
  • SkyWin Wallonia (Aerospace companies)
  • Wagralim (Agrifood)
    90 companies
  • Mecatech (Machine tool manufacturers)
    230 companies
  • GreenWin (Environmental innovation and technologies)
    150 members with more than 135 companies
  • BioWin (Biopharmacy, cellular therapy, immunology, radiopharmaceutical applications, medical instruments, biotech products and services)
    BioWin is made up of 130 companies, 400 research centres and five universities

Geography

• Easy access to the airport by car, bus, train, shuttles

Infrastructure & Operations

The single terminal includes restaurants and cafés, a bookshop, ATM, Currency Exchange Office and a Duty Free Shop.

• Runways: one – 2,550 metres X 46 metres
• Slot Coordinated: No
• Operating hours: 06.00 – 23.00 local time
• Terminals:
  • 1 terminal – easy and stress-free
  • Restaurants and cafés
  • Bookshop
  • ATM
  • Currency Exchange Office
  • Duty Free Shop
• Minimum connect time: 1 hour
• Handling (ramp & pax/fueling, etc) made by Brussels South Charleroi Airport
• ILS Cat. III
• Departure Control Systems (DCS): Iport, Aircute
• Handling punctuality (all delays > 0’) – 98.74%
• Airport punctuality (all delays >0’) – 97.82%
• Last bag delivery in less than 30 minutes – 95.23%

The airport’s smart, modern terminal was opened in 2008 to handle the rapid growth in passenger numbers. Before 2002 the airport had handled less than one million passengers per annum. In 2004 the airport passed two million passengers and this had virtually doubled to almost four million by 2009. In 2013 the airport processed 6.8 million passengers.

Infrastructure developments:

Brussels South Charleroi Airport is going to increase its surface, as well as its capacity in terms of customer numbers. By 2017, the airport is aiming at welcoming more than nine million passenger per year. To do so, an investment plan estimated at between 15 and 20 million Euros has been made to build a second terminal, connected to the first one, with additional check-in desks, security checkpoints, gates and baggage claim areas.

Vital statistics

Passenger numbers:

Passenger numbers in 2014 – 6.5 million
100% travelling on international routes; no domestic routes from CRL

• Scheduled flights: 98%
• Charter flights: 2%

Reasons for travelling to/from CRL are the following (statistics 2013):

• Largest carriers: Ryanair, Wizz Air, Jetairfly

Other relevant vital statistics:

• 83% travelling on European routes
• 16% travelling to North Africa
• 1% travelling through Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen
  • 17% flying to Asia
  • 3% flying to Europe
  • 80% flying into Turkey (Domestic Routes)
  • 0.3% flying to North Africa

Financials

• Airport charges