Brussels South Charleroi Airport
| Brussels Charleroi Airport Aéroport de Charleroi-Bruxelles Sud |
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| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | EBCI |
| IATA code | CRL |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 187 m (614 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 5 km north of Charleroi, 50 km south of Brussels |
| Street | A15 / A54 / R3 / N5 / E42 / E420 |
| Local transport | Bus routes A, 62 and 68 of the TEC |
| Basic data | |
| opening | 1919 |
| operator | BSCA - Brussels South Charleroi Airport SA |
| Terminals | 2 |
| Passengers | 8,224,196 (2019) |
| Flight movements |
82,043 (2019) |
| Start-and runway | |
| 07/25 | 2550 m × 45 m asphalt |
The airport Brussels South Charleroi Airport ( French Aéroport de Charleroi Bruxelles-Sud ) ( IATA code : CRL , ICAO code : EBCI ) is located just 5 kilometers north of downtown Charleroi in Wallonia , but about 50 kilometers south of the Belgian Capital Brussels . Brussels-Charleroi Airport is smaller than Brussels-Zaventem Airport , but now has the second highest number of visitors of all Belgian airports after it. The airport is often called Aéroport de Charleroi-Gosselies by the local population .
history
The first flight activities were already carried out in 1919, and the British aircraft manufacturer Fairey Aviation opened a branch here in 1931.
During the Second World War , units of the Luftwaffe used the Gosselies airfield between 1940 and 1944. After the area was conquered by the US Army, the USAAF continued to use the airfield designated by the Allies as Airfield A.87 between September 1944 and 1945, initially for military purposes .
The aircraft construction continued after the war, later in the form of the companies SABCA and SONACA. With the exception of an attempt by Sabena in the 1970s with the Liege-Charleroi-London route, the airport was hardly used for commercial air traffic. Instead, private and sport aircraft landed in Charleroi-Gosselies .
However, the current form of the airport and regular passenger traffic did not come about until the 1990s under new management and through the orientation as a low-cost airport.
BSCA - Brussels South Charleroi Airport became the first continental European base of the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair in 2001 . For the first time, the airport was in strong competition with the larger Brussels-Zaventem airport. On February 3, 2004, the EU Commission decided that around 75% of the subsidies that Ryanair had received from the Brussels-Charleroi airport were illegal and had to be repaid by Ryanair. Michael O'Leary then announced legal action. In December 2008, this led to the preliminary decision of the European Court of First Instance to approve Ryanair. The court overturned the decision of the EU Commission as "legally flawed" (case T-196/04). Ryanair then asked the Commission to close its investigation into charges at other airports (e.g. Frankfurt-Hahn , Lübeck and Berlin-Schönefeld ).
A completely new check-in hall was opened in January 2008. The airport's new terminal is 30,000 square meters and has a capacity of up to 5 million passengers per year. The expansion became necessary because the old building was no longer equipped for the increasing number of passengers. Together with the old terminal, the airport's capacity increased to a theoretical 7.5 million visitors per year.
Since January 27, 2009 the airport is officially an airport of the category ILS 3, i. That is, it is equipped with an instrument landing system, which allows take-offs and landings even in adverse weather conditions.
Airlines and Destinations
The largest user of the airport is the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair. Charleroi was the first continental European aviation hub for Ryanair. Other major airlines at Charleroi airport, the Hungarian Wizz Air and from the Association TUI Airlines originating company TUI Airlines Belgium . Private Wings flies to Charleroi in charter traffic from Ingolstadt . Since spring 2012, Ryanair has been offering its first regular scheduled connection to the German-speaking area to Memmingen , although this was discontinued for the 2012/2013 winter flight schedule. The large number of destinations in Morocco is probably due to the high proportion of immigrants among Moroccans in Brussels and also in Charleroi itself. Destinations in Tunisia , Algeria , Greece and Montenegro are also served from Charleroi . In addition, after the failed attempt to fly to Hong Kong , the airline Air Belgium (2016) plans to offer destinations in mainland China from Charleroi in summer 2019 and to the United States in winter .
Transport links
- Train and bus : from Charleroi-Sud train station, take bus line A ( express bus ) or TEC 68 to the airport
- Car : from Brussels approx. 40 min / from Charleroi approx. 10 min
- Shuttle : every half hour to and from Brussels South Station , several times a day to Bruges , Lille , Luxembourg and Metz
Traffic figures
| year | Passengers | Flight movements |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 210,727 | 62,539 |
| 1999 | 235,549 | 60,060 |
| 2000 | 255.317 | 57,042 |
| 2001 | 773.431 | 57,216 |
| 2002 | 1,271,596 | 64,237 |
| 2003 | 1,804,287 | 63.140 |
| 2004 | 2,034,140 | 65,952 |
| 2005 | 1,873,651 | 61,212 |
| 2006 | 2,166,915 | 66,480 |
| 2007 | 2,458,980 | 70,725 |
| 2008 | 2,957,026 | 79,487 |
| 2009 | 3,937,187 | 81,726 |
| 2010 | 5,195,372 | 80.009 |
| 2011 | 5,901,007 | 85,597 |
| 2012 | 6,516,427 | 84,313 |
| 2013 | 6,786,979 | 83,933 |
| 2014 | 6,439,957 | 76,135 |
| 2015 | 6.956.302 | 73.912 |
| 2016 | 7,303,720 | 75,038 |
| 2017 | 7,698,767 | 78,366 |
| 2018 | 7,454,671 | 74,964 |
| 2019 | 8,224,196 | 82.043 |
Web links
- Airport data on World Aero Data ( 2006 )
- Airport data in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
- charleroi-airport.com (English, French, Dutch)
- Page of the TEC airport line (Charlerois bus company) (English, French, Dutch)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information & Maps. In: Charleroi-Airport.com. Retrieved January 13, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c d e Airport statistics. In: charleroi-airport.com. Retrieved February 29, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Success for Ryanair: Court overturns Charleroi Commission decision. In: Aero.de. December 17, 2008, accessed January 6, 2015 .
- ↑ allgaeu-airport.de - Ryanair is expanding the route network from Memmingen ( Memento of the original from March 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. November 24, 2011
- ↑ But no Hong Kong flights: Air Belgium cancels the restart. In: aeroTelegraph. March 14, 2019, accessed April 10, 2019 .
