Brussels South Charleroi Airport

Brussels South Charleroi Airport
Aéroport de Charleroi Bruxelles Sud
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner Government of Wallonia
Operator Société Wallonne des Aéroports
Serves Charleroi, Belgium
Hub for Air Belgium
Focus city for Ryanair
Elevation AMSL 614 ft / 187 m
Coordinates 50°27′36″N 004°27′10″E / 50.46000°N 4.45278°E / 50.46000; 4.45278Coordinates: 50°27′36″N 004°27′10″E / 50.46000°N 4.45278°E / 50.46000; 4.45278
Website charleroi-airport.com
Map
CRL
Brussels South Charleroi Airport in Belgium
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
07/25 2,550 8,366 Asphalt
Statistics (2017)
Passengers 7,698,767
Change 16-17 Increase5.41%
Sources: Belgian AIP[1]

Brussels South Charleroi Airport (BSCA), also called Charleroi Airport or rarely Gosselies Airport, (IATA: CRL, ICAO: EBCI) is an international airport, located in Gosselies, a part of the city of Charleroi in Wallonia (southern Belgium). The airport is 4 nautical miles (7.4 km; 4.6 mi) north[1] of Charleroi and 46 km (29 mi) south of central Brussels. In terms of passengers and aircraft movements, it is the second busiest airport in Belgium having served 7,303,720 passengers in 2016 (75,038 movements). It is also a busy general aviation airfield, being home to 3 flying schools.

The Aéropole, one of the Science Parks of Wallonia, is located near the airport.

History

Early years

The first aeronautical activities in Gosselies date back to 1919 as a flying school, then aeronautical maintenance activities the following year. The British aircraft manufacturer Fairey Aviation settled a subsidiary Avions Fairey on the site (then known as Mont des Bergers) in 1931.

During World War II, the site was arranged as an Advanced Landing Ground (A-87) for the allied air forces, from 14 September 1944 until 10 August 1945.

Gosselies airfield became a public aerodrome after World War II, but the main activities of the site remained aeronautical constructions (installation of SABCA in 1954, then SONACA in 1978, taking the place of Fairey).

In the 1970s, the Belgian national airline Sabena launched a Liège–Charleroi–London service, but this was soon dropped because of poor results. Gosselies was left with almost no passenger traffic, the airport being mainly used for private or pleasure flights, training flights and occasional charters to leisure destinations around the Mediterranean Sea or to Algeria.

Development since the 1990s

Operations at Brussels South Charleroi grew in the 1990s, with a new commercial management structure (BSCA – Brussels South Charleroi Airport) and the arrival of Irish low cost airline Ryanair in 1997, which opened its first continental base at Charleroi a few years later. [2]

Although criticised for the subsidies paid by the Walloon government to help its installation, Ryanair opened new routes from Brussels South Charleroi (they also closed two destinations: London–Stansted and Liverpool, although Stansted was re-introduced in June 2007 before being suspended again). [2] Other low-cost carriers later joined Ryanair in Brussels South Charleroi, such as Wizz Air. The Polish airline Air Polonia operated services from here to Warsaw and Katowice before going bankrupt in August 2004.

In September 2006 it was announced that Moroccan low-cost airline Jet4you would launch three weekly flights to Casablanca (on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday) starting 1 November 2006, in code-share cooperation with Belgian airline Jetairfly.[3]

A new terminal opened in January 2008. It has a capacity of up to 5 million passengers a year, which means that it has reached its maximum capacity in 2010 (5,195,372 passengers).

The European Commission objected to assistance the airport offered to Ryanair, since the airport is owned by the Wallonia regional government and thus the discounts and other benefits could be considered state aid.[4] However, the Court of First Instance (a European Union court) decided on 17 December 2008 that the Commission's decision finding that illegal aid had been granted to Ryanair should be annulled and quashed as being erroneous in law. However, in March 2012, the Commission reopened the case in order to take this judgement into account.[5]

In January 2017, a second terminal (Terminal 2) was opened in order to relieve the T1 during rush hours and to be able to accommodate 10 000 000 passengers/year in the future.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Brussels South Charleroi Airport:[6]

AirlinesDestinations
Air Algerie Algiers (begins 18 December 2018)[7]
Air Belgium Seasonal: Hong Kong
Air Corsica Seasonal: Ajaccio, Bastia, Calvi
Belavia Minsk
Pegasus Airlines Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen
Ryanair Agadir, Alicante, Ancona, Athens, Banja Luka (begins 29 October 2018),[8] Barcelona, Bari, Bergamo, Biarritz, Bologna, Bordeaux, Bratislava, Brindisi, Bucharest, Budapest, Cagliari, Carcassonne, Comiso, Copenhagen, Dublin, Edinburgh, Faro, Fes, Fuerteventura, Glasgow–International (ends 27 October 2018),[9] Gran Canaria, Kraków, Lamezia Terme, Lanzarote, Lisbon, Madrid, Málaga, Manchester, Marrakesh, Marseille, Montpellier, Nador, Naples, Nîmes, Oujda, Palermo (begins 28 October 2018), [10] Palma de Mallorca, Perpignan, Pescara, Pisa, Plovdiv (ends 26 October 2018), Porto, Prague, Podgorica, Rabat, Reus, Riga, Rome–Ciampino, Santander, Seville, Sofia, Stockholm–Skavsta, Tangier, Tenerife–South, Thessaloniki, Toulouse, Treviso, Turin, Valencia, Varna (ends 25 October 2018), Vilnius, Warsaw–Modlin, Wrocław, Zaragoza
Seasonal: Alghero, Almería, Bergerac, Chania, Corfu, Eilat–Ovda, Figari, Girona, Ibiza, La Rochelle, Perugia, Pula, Rhodes, Rijeka, Rodez, Zadar
TUI fly Belgium Algiers, Alicante, Béjaïa, Casablanca, Constantine, Fes, Gran Canaria, Hurghada, Málaga, Murcia, Nador, Oran, Oujda, Ouarzazate, Rabat, Sharm El Sheikh, Tangier, Tenerife–South, Tlemcen, Toulon, Tunis
Seasonal: Al Hoceima, Djerba, Enfidha, Essaouira, Heraklion, Nice, Palma de Mallorca, Rhodes
Wizz Air Bucharest, Budapest, Chișinău (begins 16 December 2018),[11] Cluj-Napoca, Craiova (begins 15 December 2018),[12] Iași, Ljubljana, Sibiu, Skopje, Sofia, Timișoara, Warsaw–Chopin

Statistics

Charleroi Airport Passenger Totals 2001–2017 (millions)
Updated: February 3, 2018.
Terminal interior
Aerial view
Passengers per year
Year Passengers Evolution
2001773,431–
20021,271,979Increase64.45%
20031,803,587Increase41.19%
20042,034,797Increase12.81%
20051,873,349Decrease8.61%
20062,166,360Increase15.64%
20072,458,255Increase13.47%
20082,957,026Increase20.28%
20093,937,187Increase33.14%
20105,195,372Increase31.96%
20115,901,007Increase15.18%
20126,516,427Increase10.43%
20136,786,979Increase4.15%
20146,439,957Decrease5.1%
20156,956,302Increase8.01%
20167,303,720Increase4.99%
20177,698,767Increase5.41%[13]
Busiest Routes from Charleroi Airport (2016)
RankAirportPassengers 2016
1 Hungary, Budapest Airport313,983
2 Italy, Bergamo Airport279,694
3 Romania, Bucharest Airport260,009
4 Spain, Madrid Airport251,526
5 Denmark, Copenhagen Airport200,486
Source: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/transport/data/database

Ground transportation

Bus

There are several shuttles to different cities in the neighbouring countries (Luxembourg, Metz, Thionville, Lille) plus a regular coach service that runs from the airport to Brussels-South railway station. Also, a special bus (Airport Express – A) operates from the airport to Charleroi-South railway station. A combined bus and train ticket to any other Belgian railway station can be bought in the terminal.

Car

The airport is accessible by the highway from Brussels, Liège or Lille.

Accidents and incidents

  • On 8 April 2011, a Dutch F-16 had to make an emergency landing because of a technical failure of one of its sets of landing gear. The plane landed on its belly. The pilot did not suffer any injuries.[14]
  • On 9 February 2013, a small Cessna plane crashed near the runway after suffering technical problems during take-off, killing all 5 people on board. The airport was closed for about six hours before resuming services.[15][16]

See also

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

  1. 1 2 AIP for EBCI – Brussels South Charleroi Airport from Belgocontrol
  2. 1 2 "Ryanair ready to take advantage of Charleroi's new terminal - anna.aero". 30 November 2007.
  3. ↑ "Air Arabia Maroc launches with six destinations from Casablanca starting with Stansted - anna.aero". 8 May 2009.
  4. ↑ "BBC NEWS - Business - Ryanair slates Charleroi ruling". bbc.co.uk.
  5. ↑ "European Commission - PRESS RELEASES - Press release - State aid: Commission opens in-depth investigations in air transport sector in Belgium, France and Germany". europa.eu.
  6. ↑ charleroi-airport.com - Timetable retrieved May 2016
  7. ↑ 2018, UBM (UK) Ltd. "Air Algerie delays proposed Brussels Charleroi launch to late-Dec 2018".
  8. ↑ "First Flights From Bosnia & Herzegovina - Ryanair's Corporate Website". corporate.ryanair.com.
  9. ↑ Cramb, Auslan (27 February 2018). "Ryanair axes 20 routes and its base at Glasgow Airport" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  10. ↑ name "frcrl"
  11. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 5 July 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  12. ↑ "Wizz Air continue l'expansion de son réseau européen : La compagnie lance une nouvelle ligne vers Craiova depuis Bruxelles-Charleroi". www.brussels-charleroi-airport.com.
  13. ↑ "Statistics". charleroi-airport.com.
  14. ↑ "Accident d'un F16 à Charleroi: réouverture de l'aéroport". rtl.be.
  15. ↑ "Belgian airport reopens after plane crash kills family". Reuters.
  16. ↑ "Belgium plane crash closes Charleroi airport". BBC News.

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